7 


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'^jii^  PRINCETON,  N.  J.  *^ 


Purchased   by  the    Hamill    Missionary   Fund. 


BV 

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.P6  A5  1902 

Presbyt< 

9rian  Church 

in 

the 

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S,A. 

General  Assembl 

y. 

Centennial  of  home  missions 

1802     CENTENNIAL     1902 


OF 


HOME  MISSIONS 


IN   CONNECTION   WITH   THE   ONE   HUNDRED 

AND    FOURTEENTH    GENERAL    ASSEMBLY 

OF    THE    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH    IN 

THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 

NEW  YORK  CITY,  MAY  16-20,  1902 


PHILADELPHIA 

PRESBYTERIAN   BOARD    OF   PUBLICATION 
AND   SABBATH-SCHOOL  WORK 

1902 


Copyright,  1902,  by  the  Trustees  of 

The  Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication  and  Sabbath- 
School  Work 


Published  November,  jqos 


PEEFACE 


A  HUNDRED  years  of  organized  home  missions  have 
been  of  so  much  account  to  the  denomination,  to  the 
kingdom  of  Christ,  and  to  this  Republic,  that  the 
emphasis  placed  upon  them  at  the  meeting  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  in  May,  in  New  York  city,  is  abun- 
dantly justified. 

The  occasion  was  regarded  as  of  so  much  importance 
that  the  General  Assembly  waived  the  routine  of  its 
business  for  a  day  and  a  half  to  devote  that  time  to  a 
worthy  celebration  of  the  great  event.  That  the  history 
of  Presby terianism  in  this  country  has  had  such  bearing 
upon  our  national  progress  as  to  justify  some  form  of 
national  recognition  was  expressed  in  the  fact  that  the 
President  of  the  United  States  honored  the  occasion 
with  his  presence. 

The  programme  of  the  great  meetings  is  herewith  pre- 
sented to  the  Christian  public.  The  impression  which 
the  great  gatherings  made  upon  those  who  were  present 
can  never  Avholly  fade  away.  Only  a  small  fraction, 
however,  of  the  Presbyterians  who  were  rejoicing  in  the 


6  PREFACE 

occasion  could  hear  the  living  voices  of  the  speakers 
selected  for  the  centennial  exercises.  That  the  vast 
multitudes  of  Presbyterians  and  other  Christian  people 
who  could  not  be  present  may  liave  an  opportunity  to 
share  in  the  historic  and  memorable  occasion,  this  vol- 
ume is  now  sent  forth.  The  enthusiasm  of  great  audi- 
ences is,  of  course,  lacking  in  this  presentation.  But 
the  historic  facts  which  are  here  given,  the  sympathetic 
greetings  of  other  boards  and  of  other  denominations, 
the  tidings  from  home  mission  fields,  extending  from 
Porto  Rico  to  Alaska,  and  the  inspiring  words  of  the 
chief  magistrate  of  the  nation  pleading  for  national 
righteousness  will  not  fail  to  evoke  among  Presbyterians 
an  honorable  pride  in  our  Church  and  larger  hopes  for 
our  future ;  while  to  all  to  whom  these  messages  shall 
come,  of  whatever  denomination,  there  will  be  borne 
the  value  of  Christian  missions  and  Christian  institu- 
tions as  an  integral  part  in  the  upbuilding  of  our  great 
Republic. 

Charles  L.  Thompson. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

"TO  THE  ALLEGHENIES" 13 

Rev.  Henry  C.  McCook,  D.D.,Sc.D. 

"FROM  THE  ALLEGHENIES  TO  THE  ROCKIES"    .    .      53 
Rev.  Samuel  J.  Niccolls,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

"FROM  THE  ROCKIES  TO  THE  PACIFIC" 81 

Rev.  Edgar  P.  Hill,  D.D. 

"THE  PAST  YEAR" 109 

Rev.  Richard  S.  Holmes,  D.D. 

ADDRESS  ON  BEHALF  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  HOME 

MISSIONS 126 

Rev.  John  Dixon,  D.D. 

THE  SELF-SUPPORTING  SYNODS 146 

Rev.  Eben  B.  Cobb,  D.D. 

HOME  MISSIONS  IN  TEXAS 159 

Rev.  Henry  S.  Little,  D.D. 

THE  YUKON  VALLEY 161 

Rev.  M.  Egbert  Koonce,  Ph.D. 
NORTHERN  ALASKA'S  NEED 163 

Rev.  S.  Hall  Young,  D.D. 
THE  MORMON  PROBLEM 166 

Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson,  D.D. 

GREETINGS— FROM  THE  BOARD  OF  FOREIGN  MIS- 
SIONS   171 

Rev,  John  D.  Wells,  D.D. 

FROM  THE  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION 180 

Rev.  George  D.  Baker,  D.D. 

FROM  THE  BOARD  OF  PUBLICATION  AND  SABBATH- 
SCHOOL  WORK 185 

Hon.  Robert  N.  Willson. 

FROM  THE  BOARD  OF  MINISTERIAL  RELIEF    ...    192 
Hon.  Robert  H.  Smith. 

FROM  THE  BOARD  OF  CHURCH  ERECTION 196 

Rev.  David  Magie,  D.D. 

7 


8  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

FROM  THE  BOARD  FOR  FREEDMEN 199 

Rev.  Henby  T.  McClelland,  D.D. 

FRO^I  THE  BOARD  OF  AID  FOR  COLLEGKS     ....    204 
Rev.  Herrick  Johnson  D.D.,  LL.D. 

FROM    THE   AMERICAN    BAPTIST    HOME   MISSION 

SOCIETY 211 

Rev.  AV.  C.  P.  Rhoades,  D.D. 

FROM  TPIE  CONGREGATIONAL  HOME  MISSIONARY 

SOCIETY 21(5 

Rev.  J.  B.  Clark,  D.D. 

FROM  THE  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY  OF  THE  METH- 
ODIST EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 223 

Bishop  E.  G.  Andrews,  D.D. 

FROM  THE  DOMESTIC  AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY 
SOCIETY     OF    THE     PROTESTANT     EPISCOPAL 

CHURCH  IN  THE  U.  S.  A 228 

Rev.  D.  H.  Greer,  D.D. 

FROM  THE  BOARD  OF  DOMESTIC  MISSIONS  OF  THE 

REFORMED  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA 232 

Rev.  James  I.  Vance,  D.D. 
FROM  THE  ALLIANCE  OF  REFORMED  CHURCHES  .    238 

Rev.  William  H.  Roberts,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

RESPONSE  BY  THE  MODERATOR 243 

Rev.  Henry  van  Dyke,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

"THE  NEW  CENTURY  "—ADDRESS  BY  THE  CHAIR- 
MAN      251 

Rev.  D.  Stuart  Dodge,  D.D. 

ADDRESS 257 

Theodore  Roosevelt,  President  of  the  LTnited  States. 

ADDRESS  AT  THE  OVERFLOAV  MEETING 264 

Theodore  Roosevelt,  President  of  the  United  States. 

RESPONSE  BY  THE  MODERATOR 267 

Rev.  Henry  van  Dyke,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

A  VISION  OF  THE  FUTURE 271 

Rev.  Charles  L.  Thompson,  D.D. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY 


EXTEACT   FEOM    THE   MiNUTES,    MaY    16,    1902. 

The  Committee  on  the  Centennial  Celebration  of  Home  Mis- 
i'ivjns,  through  its  Chairman,  John  E.  Parsons,  Esq.,  presented 
a  programme  of  the  celebration,  which  was  accepted,  aj^proved 
and  is  as  follows : 

FfiiDAY,  May  16. 

All-Day  Session — Annual   Meeting  of   the  Woman's   Board, 

Central  Presbyterian  Church. 
4.30  p.  M. :    Reception  to  the  Assembly  in  the  Presbyterian 

Building,  156  Fifth  Avenue. 

Saturday,  May  17. 
8.00  p.m.:  Lecture:  "Two  Centuries  of  Presbyterianism,"  by 
the  Eev.  William  C.  Covert,  of  Saginaw,  Mich.,  Fifth 
Avenue  Church. 

Sunday,  May  18. 
Home  Mission  sermons  in  the  pulpits  of  Greater  New  York. 
3.00  P.  M. :  Popular  Home  Missionary  meeting.  Fifth  Avenue 
Church. 

Monday,  May  19. 

The  Fast  Century. 
2.30  P.  M. :  Fifth  Avenue  Church,  Rev.  Wilson  Phraner,  D.D., 
presiding. 

1.  Invocation.       Rev.    George    F.    McAfee,    D.D.,    New 

York,  N.  Y. 

2.  Hymn. 

3.  Address—"  To  the  Alleghenies,"  Rev.  Henry  C.  McCook, 

D.D.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

4.  Hymn. 

9 


10         ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY. 

5.  Address — "  From  tlie  Alleghenies  to  the  Rockies,"  Rev. 

Samuel  J.  NiccoUs,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

6.  Music. 

7.  Address — "  From  the  Rockies  to  the  Pacific,"  Rev.  Edgar 

P.  Hill,  D.D.,  Portland,  Oregon. 

8.  Doxology. 

9.  Benediction,  Rev.  Lyman  Whitney  Allen,  D.D.,  Newark, 

N.J. 
7.30  p.  M. :  Conference  of  Home  Missionaries,  Central  Church. 

Tuesday,  May  20. 
The  Past  Year. 

10.00  A.  M. :  Fifth  Avenue  Church. 

1.  Report  of  the  Standing  Committee  on  Home  Missions. 

2.  Address,  Rev.  Richard  S.  Holmes,  D.D.,  Pittsburg,  Pa. 

3.  Address,  Rev.  John  Dixon,  D.D.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

4.  Music. 

5.  Address,  Bev.  Eben  B.  Cobb,  D.D.,  Elizabeth,  N.  J. 

6.  Brief  Addresses  by  Missionaries. 

7.  Hymn. 

8.  Benediction,   Rev.    Wilton    Merle   Smith,   D.D.,   New 

York,  N.  Y. 

Fellowship  Meeting. 

2.30  P.  M. :  Fifth  Avenue  Church.     The  Moderator  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  presiding. 

1.  Prayer,  Rev.  L.  Mason  Clarke,  D.D.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

2.  Music. 

3.  Addresses  by  Rev.   John   D.   Wells,   D.D.,   Brooklyn, 

N.  Y.,  representing  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions ; 
Rev.  David  Magie,  D.D.,  Peterson,  N.  J.,  representing 
the  Board  of  Church  Erection  ;  Rev.  George  D.  Baker, 
D.D.,  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  representing  the  Board  of 
Education  ;  Hon.  Robert  N.  Willson,  Philadelphia,  Pa., 
representing  the  Board  of  Publication  and  S.  S.  Work  ; 
R.  H.  Smith,  Esq.,  Baltimore,  Md.,  representing  the 
Board  of  Ministerial  Relief;  Rev.  Henry  T.  McClel- 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY         11 

land,  D.D.,  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  representing  the  Board  for 
Freed  men ;  Rev.  Herrick  Johnson,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Chi- 
cago, 111.,  representing  the  Board  of  Aid  for  Colleges. 

4.  Hymn, 

5.  Addresses  by  Eev.  W.  C.  P.  Rhoades,  D.D.,  Brooklyn, 

N.  Y.,  Chairman  of  Executive  Board,  the  American 
Baptist  Home  Mission  Society;  Rev.  J.B.  Clark, D.D., 
New  York,  N.  Y.,  Senior  Secretary,  the  Congregational 
Home  Missionary  Society ;  Bishop  E.  G.  Andrews,  D.D., 
New  York,  N.  Y.,  Missionary  Society  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church ;  Rt.  Rev.  Dr.  William  Croswell 
Doane,  Albany,  N.  Y.,  and  Rev.  David  H.  Greer,  D.D., 
of  St.  Thomas'  Church,  N.  Y.,  Domestic  and  Foreign 
Missionary  Society  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  U.  S.  A, ;  Rev.  James  I.  Vance,  D.D.,  Newark, 
N.  J.,  Board  of  Domestic  Missions  of  the  Reformed 
Church  in  America ;  Rev.  William  Henry  Roberts, 
D.D.,  LL.D.,  American  Secretary  Alliance  of  Re- 
formed Churches. 

6.  Music. 

7.  Prayer  and  Benediction,  Rev.  Thomas  A.  Nelson,  D.D. 

Tuesday,  May  20. 
The  New  Century. 
8.00  p.  M. :   Carnegie  Hall,  Rev.  D.  Stuart  Dodge,  D.D.,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions,  presiding. 

1.  Hymn—"  Ye  Servants  of  God." 

2.  Scripture  Reading,  Rev.  Howard  Agnew  Johnston,  D.D 

3.  Prayer,  Rev.  Duncan  J.  McMillan,  D.D. 

4.  Address,  Theodore  Roosevelt,  President  of  the  United 

States. 

5.  Hymn — "God     Guard    Columbia,"    written    by    Rev. 

Henry  C,  McCook,  D.D. 

6.  Address,  by  the  Moderator  of  the  Assembly. 

7.  Hymn—"  All  Hail  the  Power  of  Jesus'  Name." 

8.  Address,  Rev.  Charles  L.  Thompson,  D.D. 


12  ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY 

9.  Hymn—"  My  Country,  'Tis  of  Thee." 
10.  Benediction,  Rev.  Henry  S.  Little,  D.D, 

Tuesday  Evening. 
8.00   p.  M. :    Central    Presbyterian   Church,    Eev.   George    L 
Spining,  D.D.,  presiding. 

1.  Devotional  Exercises,  Rev.  John  Dixon,  D.D. 

2.  Addresses  by  the  INIoderator  of  the  General  Assembly ; 

Rev.  S.  Hall  Young,  D.D.,  of  Alaska;  Rev.  Milton 
E.  Caldwell,  D.D.,  of  Porto  Rico;  Hev.  Charles  F. 
Richardson,  of  Montana ;  Rev.  S.  E.  Wishard,  D.D., 
of  Utah. 

3.  Benediction,  Rev.  Calvin  A.  Duncan,  D.D.,  Knoxville, 

Tenn. 

Wednesday,  May  21. 

2.00  p.  M. :   Woman's   Board  Conference  of  Workers,  Central 

Church. 

Friday,  May  23. 

8.00  p.  M. :  Fifth  Avenue  Church,  Rev.  J.  Ross  Stevenson, 
D.D.,  presiding.  Young  People's  Meeting  in  the 
interest  of  Home  and  Foreign  Missions.  Addresses 
by  Rev.  Graham  Lee,  of  Korea ;  Rev.  M.  Egbert 
Koonce,  Ph.D.,  of  Alaska,  and  Mr.  John  Willis  Baer. 

Extract  from  the  Minutes,  May  23,  1902. 

Your  Committee  has  also  considered  the  question  of  the 
record  in  enduring  form  of  the  proceedings  in  connection  with 
the  celebration  of  the  Centennial  of  Home  Missions,  and  we 
recommend  that  the  Board  of  Publication  and  Sabbath-school 
Work  be  directed  to  print  and  issue  in  permanent  form  the 
proceedings  of  May  19  and  20,  1902,  as  they  may  be  furnished 
by  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions.     Adopted. 

The  above  extracts  are  true  copies  of  the  Minutes  in  each 
case. 

Wm.  Henry  Roberts, 

Stated  Clerk. 


Monday  Afternoon,  May  19th, 

Fifth  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church, 
New  York,  N.  Y. 


"THE   PAST   CENTURY" 


"  TO  THE  ALLEGHENIES  " 

THE  ATLANTIC  STATES:   THE  MOTHERLAND  OF 
HOME  MISSIONS 

BY   THE 

BEV.  HENRY  C.  I^IcCOOK,  D.  D.,  Sc.  D., 
Philadelphia,  Penna. 


THE     ATLANTIC    STATES:    THE   MOTHER- 
LAND OF  HOME  MISSIONS 


HENRY  CHRISTOPHER  McCOOK,  D.  D.,  Sc.  D. 


Italian  art  is  the  product  of  two  chief  factors. 
One  is  the  Italian  himself;  the  other  is  the  act  of  nature 
that  set  the  marble  of  Carrara  within  his  volcanic  hills. 
So,  in  the  centennial  results  that  your  Home  Mission 
Board  presents,  two  chief  natural  factors  were  concerned : 
one  was  the  Home  Evangelist;  the  other  the  human 
types  whose  grain  and  quality  gave  the  material  out  of 
which  the  missionary  in  the  field  and  the  missioner  in 
Assembly,  presbytery,  committee,  and  Board,  could 
carve  a  character,  a  Church,  and  a  commonwealth.  We 
are  thinking  to-day  of  the  home  missionary  and  his 
heaven-inspired  art.  We  must  remember  also  the 
Carrara  marble ;  aye,  and  the  volcanic  forces  that  pro- 
duced it.     We  are  to  consider,  first, 

I 

The  Human  Material  on  which  Our  Home 
Missionaries  Wrought 

When  the  seventeenth  century  dawned,  Europe  was 
still  in  the  throes  of  the  Reformation,  that  great  conflict 
for  soul-liberty  and  for  the  sovereignty  of  God's  word. 

15 


16  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

Out  of  the  hurly-burly  there  emerged  a  form  which,  to 
one  part  of  Europe,  seemed  as  captivating  as  the  bride  of 
the  Canticles ;  but  to  the  other,  dreadful  as  the  woman  of 
Tlie  Revelation — a  destroyer  and  to  be  destroyed.  That 
form  was  Presbytery.  The  Huguenots  of  France,  the 
Reformed  of  Switzerland,  of  the  Palatinate,  of  Hesse, 
of  Brandenbnrg,  of  Holland,  and  of  Scotland,  had  seated 
her  in  their  cathedrals,  and  enthroned  her  in  their  chairs 
of  state.  The  English  Puritans  wooed  her  lustily,  and 
would  have  won  but  for  the  hostility  of  Elizabeth,  who, 
toward  that  fair  form,  was  a  veritable  virago  rather  than 
the  "  Good  Queen  Bess." 

Meanwhile,  throughout  all  the  century,  ISTorth  Amer- 
ica lay  dim  and  mysterious  in  the  far-away  western 
ocean.  Would  this  virgin  world  become  a  field  wherein 
to  transplant  and  propagate  presbytery  ? 

It  was  not  until  the  second  decade  of  the  seventeenth 
century  that  English  Independents  made  their  mem- 
orable settlement  at  Plymouth.  That  was  like  the 
coming  of  migratory  birds  in  springtime.  Yesterday 
there  was  a  pair ;  to-day  there  is  another.  Next  week 
the  groves  shall  be  vocal  with  their  songs.  In  1607 
there  was  a  Jamestown;  in  1614  a  New  Amsterdam; 
in  1620  a  Plymouth;  in  1630  a  Dorchester;  in  1638  a 
New  Sweden.  Thenceforth  the  gates  of  the  new  hemi- 
sphere were  entered  all  along  the  coast,  and  the  century 
closed  (1682)  upon  "William  Penn's  "Holy  Experiment." 

So  came  the  eighteenth  century,  most  memorable  and 
fateful  in  the  development  of  our  country  and  of  our 
Church.     The  opening  of  the  seventeenth  century  had 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  17 

witnessed  the  planting  of  Scotch  Presbyterians  in  Ulster 
upon  the  forfeitcfl  estates  of  the  Earls  of  Tyrone  and 
Tyrconnel. 

The  "  undertakers "  of  these  new  plantations  were 
fortified  by  refugees  from  the  Stuart  persecutions.  The 
intolerance  of  the  English  Church  and  government 
fastened  upon  Irish  Presbyterians  and  Roman  Catholics 
alike  the  yoke  of  Anglican  bishops.  These  gentlemen 
are  harmless  and  delightful  personages  now,  with  their 
shovel  hats  and  knee  breeches,  their  high  scholarship  and 
higher  churchmanship,  and  highest  views — and  narrow 
as  high,  as  imaginary  lines  must  always  be — of  a  sole 
apostolic  succession  for  their  ministry.  But  they  were 
hard  and  serious  facts  in  those  not  very  distant  days, 
and  down  to  the  period  of  the  American  and  French 
Revolutions.  Atrocious  penal  laws  harried  the  native 
Irish  Roman  Catholics.  Irritating  and  oppressive  re- 
strictions and  requirements  oppressed  the  Presbyterians. 
They  were  excluded  from  office ;  forbidden  to  be  married 
by  their  own  pastors ;  denied  commissions  in  the  army 
and  other  positions,  except  under  odious  test  oaths; 
insulted  and  ill-treated  in  many  ways. 

Meanwhile  yonder,  in  the  New  World,  there  called 
to  this  persecuted  folk  the  sweet  voice  of  freedom  to 
worship  God  in  their  own  way,  the  promise  of  personal 
independence,  and  the  ownership  of  fair  lands.  Our 
fathers  followed  the  voice !  America  was  their  land  of 
promise.  British  ships  groaned  with  the  loads  of  emi- 
grants who  crowded  across  seas. 

Those  Ulster  Presbyterians  became  the  hardy  settlers 


18  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

of  our  southern  and  central  frontier,  and  the  brave  op- 
posers  of  Indian  encroachment ;  for  they  were  an  adven- 
turous and  warlike  folk,  though  well  fashioned  for  the 
substantial  arts  of  peace.  They  rushed  en  masse  into 
the  Continental  Army,  to  win  once  and  forever  religious 
and  civil  freedom  from  a  people  and  a  system  that  had 
given  them  good  ground  for  suspicion  and  resentment. 
The  century  closed  upon  their  full  success.  The  colo- 
nies were  free,  and  constituted  a  nation  of  freemen. 
Their  beloved  presbytery  had  developed  its  supreme 
court,  the  General  Assembly,  which  neither  king  nor 
prelate  could  henceforth  molest.  Into  and  under  that 
General  Assembly  came  the  New  England  Puritans, 
especially  of  Connecticut  and  northern  New  York,  and 
formed,  with  the  Ulstermen,  the  chief  constituency 
and  the  controlling  element.  Thus  dawned  the  nine- 
teenth century,  and  that  era  and  act  whose  centenary  we 
commemorate. 

It  was  a  sifted  people  that  God  set  upon  those  virgin 
shores :  a  people  tried  in  the  furnace  of  affliction  and 
persecution  for  conscience's  sake.  By  the  very  fire  that 
tried  them  and  the  pressure  of  their  oppression  they  were 
given  that  fine  grain  that  made  them  fitting  material  for 
the  artist  hand  of  the  Angel  of  Providence. 

This  was  the  raw  material,  the  historic  background 
upon  which  our  picture  of  American  missions  must  be 
drawn.  But  the  raw  material  was  at  once  exposed  to 
violent  tests.  Novel  social  forces  played  upon  it  and 
molded  it  into  new  forms,  finer  or  grosser,  fair  or  gro- 
tesque, noble  or  depraved.     What  were  some  of  these 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  19 

forces?  The  shock  of  hereditary  opinions  and  customs, 
often  hard  set  and  stubbornly  held,  as  the  confluent 
streams  of  life  from  many  diverse  nations  met  and  inter- 
mingled ;  the  struggle  to  adjust  new  conditions  to  Old 
World  ideas  and  habits  which  still  clung  to  them  like  half- 
cast  shells  upon  molting  spiders ;  the  hunger  and  struggle 
for  land  and  for  a  living ;  the  restless  spirit  of  change 
that  drove  families  west  and  still  farther  westward  ;  the 
untoward  effect  of  watching  against  and  combat  with  a 
lurking  savage  foe,  which  developed  traits  of  cunning, 
fierceness,  and  cruelty,  as  well  as  of  courage  and  adroit- 
ness ;  the  pressure  and  exigencies,  both  contractile  and 
expansive  spirituality,  of  founding  new  communities — 
all  these  were  factors  for  good  or  evil  that  wrought  and 
had  wrought  upon  the  American  people  a  century  ago. 
Conditions  created  character ;  character  reacted  upon 
conditions ;  and  there  lay  the  whole  complex  and  hetero- 
geneous mass,  to  be  kneaded  into  homogeneous  society, 
and  molded  and  fixed  into  the  image  of  Christ  and  his 
Church.  The  new  American  States  of  a  hundred  years 
ago  might  be  compared  to  a  solution  of  precious  metal 
in  the  chemist's  retort,  ready  for  the  reagent  that  should 
separate  the  gold  from  the  dross.  That  precipitant  was 
the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  work  of  the  home 
missionary  was  to  cast  it  into  the  solution. 

II 

Difficulties  Overcome  by  the  Home  Missionary 

If  we  would  fairly  grasp  the  degree  of  honor  due  the 

home  missionary  fathers  and  founders  of  the  Church, 


20  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

we  must  reckon  up  some  of  the  difficulties  which  they 
overcame  in  achieving  success.     There  was — 

1.  THE   DETERIORATING   EFFECT  OF  THE   STRUGGLE  FOR 
EXISTENCE 

The  people  were  scattered  far  apart  along  our  wide 
frontier,  with  vast  reaches  of  virgin  forest  and  prairie 
lying  beyond  them.  Between  the  several  columns  of 
migration,  which  were  being  thrust  in  wedge-like  masses 
into  the  wilderness,  lay  also  the  forest  primeval.  The 
sparse  settlements  were  gathered  round  small  hamlets, 
most  of  whose  houses  were  rude  log  cabins  painfully 
erected  by  the  solitary  pioneers,  or  built  by  the  common 
toil  of  the  community  at  cabin-raisings,  which  were 
usually  occasions  for  a  frolic.  At  morning  the  house 
and  its  furniture  lay  latent  within  the  forest  trees.  At 
nightfall  it  was  a  human  habitation,  with  table,  bunk, 
benches  and  stools,  and  rustic  brackets  for  rifles,  and 
pegs  for  the  settler's  scant  stock  of  clothes.  It  is  not 
far  from  the  truth  to  say  that  a  century  ago  a  moiety  of 
the  people  of  our  Union  dwelt  in  such  primitive  huts  as 
these. 

Their  modes  of  living  were  as  primitive  as  their 
houses.  Clothing  was  made  of  home-grown  wool  and 
flax,  spun  and  woven  and  sewed  by  the  women.  Money 
was  rarely  seen.  Traffic  was  a  system  of  barter.  The 
farmers  exchanged  their  products  for  the  few  articles 
that  the  trader  had  to  sell  in  his  frontier  department 
store,  and  he  in  turn  sent  his  barter,  as  he  had  received 
his  goods,  by  pack-horse  trains  or  wagons  to  distant 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  21 

centers  of  trade  ;  or,  if  convenient  to  rivers,  the  flat  boat 
and  the  ark  floated  his  accumulations  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Mississippi. 

There  is  a  social  evolution  of  retardation  and  of 
degradation  as  well  as  the  reverse.  It  was  a  startling 
change  from  the  life  of  New  England,  or  the  life  of 
Ulster,  or  Scotland,  or  Holland,  or  Germany,  or  France, 
into  which  the  emigrants  to  the  borders  of  America 
were  suddenly  thrust.  Many  of  them  were  so  firmly 
grounded  in  the  principles  in  which  they  had  been  bred 
that  they  kept  them  untarnished  amid  the  most  un- 
friendly environment.  The  first  voice  of  the  missionary 
found  them  willing  and  eager  to  drop  into  the  old  paths 
of  duty  and  devotion. 

With  the  multitude  it  was  otherwise.  The  struggle 
for  existence  levied  upon  every  faculty  and  force  of 
mind  and  body.  Alienation  from  established  influ- 
ences and  from  the  ordinances  of  religion  left  the  spirit- 
ual nature  unnourished.  It  grew  flabby,  decadent ;  it 
was  atrophied  at  last.  Habits,  left  without  the  braces 
and  guards  of  a  settled  life,  swung  away  sharply  tangent 
to  the  early  use  and  wont  of  religious  and  moral  restraint. 
The  deterioration  of  the  frontier  settlers  was  a  subject 
of  frequent  anxiety  to  the  presbyteries,  synods,  and 
assemblies  of  early  days.  They  mourned  the  widely 
spread  infidelity  ;  the  indifference  to  and  neglect  of 
religion ;  the  drunkenness,  dueling,  gambling,  profanity, 
fighting,  and  lust  that  kept  in  a  ferment  of  moral  filthi- 
ness  and  social  disorder  the  long  line  of  frontier  reaching 
from  the  Carolinas  to  the  Ohio.     A  type  of  character 


22  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

described  by  its  possessors  as  "  half-borsc,  half-alligator, 
rip-roaring,  fire-eating,  whip  my  weight  in  wildcats" 
dominated  many  sections. 

That  type  has  persisted.  Our  later  missionaries  knew 
something  of  it,  and  still  know,  although  our  generation 
is  seeing  the  passing  of  the  old-time  frontier.  But  the 
rapidity  with  which  modern  civilization  sweeps  over 
modern  border  settlements  gives  such  aberrant  forms 
of  society  a  far  more  evanescent  life  than  in  those 
earlier  times.  True,  the  day  was  to  come — indeed,  the 
day  had  already  dawned  upon  that  Assembly — when  a 
power  mightier  than  all  bands  of  iniquity  should  sweep 
along  that  border  like  the  "  rushing  mighty  wind  "  of 
Pentecost,  and  revolutionize  the  character  of  the  people. 
But  ere  the  great  revival  of  1800  and  until  its  divine 
work  of  reconstruction  had  been  wrought,  the  absorbing 
struggle  for  existence,  the  greed  for  land,  the  unlicensed 
freedom  of  the  frontier,  the  unchecked  carnival  of 
depravity  fostered  by  demoralized  soldiers,  and  the  out- 
casts and  criminals  of  Europe  and  the  East  who  had 
fled  for  refuge  to  western  solitudes,  reared  an  appalling 
barrier  against  the  holy  toils  of  the  missionary. 

2.  OPEEATING  UPON  SHIFTING  COMMUNITIES 

Moreover,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  old-time 
evangelists  were  operating  not  upon  settled,  but  upon 
shifting,  communities.  Their  gospel  armory  must  be 
trained  to  shoot  upon  the  wing.  A  comparison  of  the 
first  census  in  1790  with  that  of  1800  will  show  that  a 
large   part   of  our  population    was   in  a  state  of  flux. 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  23 

"When  tlic  first  General  Assonibly  mot  in  1789  the 
whole  region  from  western  Pennsylvania  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi, and  from  the  Kentucky  border  northward  to 
the  Great  Lakes,  was  practically  uninhabited  by  white 
men.  The  census  of  1790  gave  that  vast  territory, 
now  the  heart  of  the  nation,  a  population  of  4280 — a 
twentieth-century  village. 

Ere  the  nineteenth  century  dawned,  the  westward 
drift  of  population  had  begun.  New  England  over- 
flowed into  New  York,  and  again  pushing  on,  with 
the  restless  impulse  of  destiny  by  which  nature  accom- 
plishes the  occupancy  of  the  earth  and  the  distribution 
of  species,  the  migratory  wave  spread  itself  into  northern 
Pennsylvania  and  northeastern  Ohio.  There  it  paused 
and  overspread  the  Valley  of  the  Allegheny  and  the 
"  Western  Reserve,"  until,  like  a  mountain  lake  under 
a  spring  freshet,  it  poured  over  its  bounds  and  swept  on 
westward. 

Lower  down,  the  stream  of  emigrants  overflowed  cen- 
tral Pennsylvania,  swelled  over  the  Alleghenies,  and 
was  distributed  northward  and  southward  along  the 
Ohio,  and  in  the  central  valleys  of  the  Buckeye  State. 
Ohio  was  then  the  frontier,  that  "  greater  East  "  which 
is  now  the  middle  West.  There,  on  that  early  day,  one 
could  feel  the  pulse-beat  of  the  Eastern  States,  the  heart 
of  the  new  Republic,  sending  forth  its  best  blood  to 
vitalize  and  nourish  the  nation's  extremities. 

Farther  south  the  tide  moved  from  the  Atlantic 
States  westward  and  southwestward.  The  seaboard 
was  monopolized  by  the  great  planters,  and  the  landless 


24  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

settlers  were  forced  inward.  The  West  had  already 
begun  to  gain  at  the  expense  of  the  East.  The  po})ula- 
tion  of  Kentucky,  tlie  fifteenth  State  (received  in  1791), 
was  greater  than  that  of  Delaware,  or  Rhode  Island,  or 
Georgia,  or  Maryland,  or  New  Hampshire,  or  New 
Jersey,  and  yet  numbered  only  221,000. 

The  record  of  a  decade's  growth  in  Oklahoma  was 
almost  paralleled  by  that  of  Kentucky  a  hundred  years 
ago.  The  population  of  Tennessee,  the  latest  born  of 
the  States  (received  1796),  exceeded  both  Delaware  and 
Rhode  Island.  In  the  Ohio  territory,  which  before 
Wayne's  victory  at  Fallen  Timbers  in  1794,  was  almost  a 
wilderness  inhabited  only  by  Indians,  there  were  45,363 
settlers.  Indiana  Territory  had  6000,  the  Mississippi 
Territory,  9000,  and  the  cry  was,  "  still  they  come! " 

To  follow  this  flitting  multitude  into  the  wilderness, 
over  forest  trails  and  mountain  paths  and  wild  lakes 
and  unbridged  rivers,  to  search  out  and  tend  the  scat- 
tered and  wandering  flock  of  God,  was  a  task  that 
might  have  taxed  the  strongest  and  best  organized 
forces.  It  must  have  seemed  most  formidable  to  the 
few  and  loosely  organized  churches  of  the  Atlantic  slope 
a  hundred  years  ago.  It  added  to  the  difliculty  that  in 
many  cases  ere  the  molding  hand  of  the  missionary  had 
well  begun  the  work  of  shaping  or  restoring  pious 
character,  the  restless  subjects,  stirred  by  rumor  or 
dream  of  some  new  Eldorado,  moved  on  still  farther 
west.  Yet,  still  onward  moved  in  their  trail  the  un- 
daunted missionary ;  for  the  Empire  whose  westward 
course  he  pursued  was  the  Eternal  Kingdom  of  Christ ! 


CENTENNIAll  OF  HOME  MISSIONS  2-5 

3.  THE  WEAK  AND  SCATTEEED  BATTLE  LINE 

Again,  consider  the  base  of  supplies  from  which  were 
drawn  the  men  and  the  means  for  evangelizing  these 
ever  shifting,  yet  rapidly  swelling,  new  settlements. 
You  must  eliminate  from  your  minds  the  impression  of 
present  conditions,  and  put  your  thought,  if  possible, 
within  the  setting  of  a  century  ago.  In  all  New  York, 
in  the  two  synods  covering  that  State,  there  were  66 
ministers,  of  whom  44  were  settled  as  pastors  or  stated 
supplier.  There  were  about  90  churches,  of  which  36 
were  organizations  without  pastoral  or  other  charge. 

On  a  map  of  the  United  States  put  90  dots  of  blue 
along  New  York's  southeastern  counties,  clustered  more 
closely  upon  Manhattan  and  Long  Islands.  Thence  let 
them  straggle  up  the  Hudson,  thinning  out  into  the 
central  and  northern  valleys,  and  diminishing  into  a 
point  in  the  then  wilderness  of  the  Genesee.  You  will 
have  here  an  objective  illustration  of  what  a  scant  show- 
ing our  Church  made  even  in  one  of  its  strongholds 
in  1802. 

On  the  remainder  of  your  map  put  460  blue  dots, 
more  than  half  of  which  should  be  but  the  faintest 
specks,  in  token  of  the  nebulous  character  of  the  vacant 
churches  they  represent.  Let  them  range  along  the 
Atlantic  Seaboard,  from  New  England  to  the  Carolinas, 
with  four  broken  lines  of  color  straggling  westward  and 
northwestward  into  the  wilderness.  You  will  have  an 
object  lesson  of  the  weakness  of  this  great  Communion 
a  hundred  years  ago  ;  nay,  of  the  three  great  Churches 
popularly  known  as  the  Northern,  the  Southern,  and 


26  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

the  Cumberland  Presbyterian,  which  were  then  all 
included  within  one  fold.  With  the  exception  of  a 
few  points  scattered  along  the  Ohio  River  and  within 
the  valleys  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  and  a  few 
penetrating  the  interior  of  the  Ohio  territory,  your  dots 
of  blue  would  all  be  within  the  thirteen  original  States. 
This  would  indicate  the  actual  aggressive  force  that  lay 
behind  the  missionary  outposts  pushed  into  the  frontier. 
It  was  indeed  a  "  far-flung  battle  line,"  and  thin  and 
broken,  almost  separate  from  its  base,  and  set  in  the 
face  of  obstacles  that  would  have  daunted  men  of 
ordinary  courage  and  faith. 

To-day,  if  you  would  make  an  outline  map  of  that 
Synod  of  New  York  whose  representatives  sat  in  the 
Assembly  of  1802,  you  must  divide  the  Empire  State 
into  30  presbyteries,  with  902  blue  dots  for  her 
churches  instead  of  90 ;  with  184,000  communicant 
members  instead  of  4000;  181,000  Sunday-school 
children,  and  over  half  a  million  worshiping  adherents, 
officered  by  6000  elders  and  deacons,  and  honorable 
women  not  a  few  (4195  elders  and  1472  deacons),  and 
a  ministerial  force  of  pastors,  evangelists,  and  licentiates 
of  1357.  The  converts  last  year  (1901)  were  8330; 
twice  the  total  membership  of  the  entire  State  a  hun- 
dred years  ago. 

Back  of  this  splendid  array  of  members  and  leader- 
ship you  must  count  a  total  money  contribution  of  three 
and  three-quarter  millions,  of  which  nearly  one  and  one- 
quarter  millions  were  for  the  propagation  of  the  gospel 
and  for  reported  Christian  benevolence,  besides  a  vast 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  ^HSSIONS  27 

unreported  sum  given  by  members  of  our  churches  to 
the  general  charities  which  they  largely  supjwrt. 

Turning  from  the  single  State  of  New  York  to  the 
United  States,  and  omitting  from  the  count  our  Southern 
and  Cumberland  sisters,  your  550  blue  dots  whicli 
represented  the  churches  of  a  century  ago  would  be 
multiplied  fourteenfold  (7779).  A  ministerial  force 
of  8000  pastors  and  evangelists  (and  917  candidates) 
leads  the  worship,  and  the  Christian  work  of  over 
a  million  (1,025,388)  communicants,  and  yet  more 
(1,056,110)  Sunday-school  scholars,  representing  a  host 
of  worshipers  and  adherents  estimated  at  five  millions. 
If  you  allow  on  this  latest  map  a  place  for  all  reported 
religious  contributions,  the  sum-total  would  be  nearly 
($16,834,376)  seventeen  millions  !  of  which  three  and 
a  quarter  millions  ($3,176,593)  were  for  purely  mission- 
ary objects.  Of  this  you  may  set  aside  $2,268,854  for 
various  home  missionary  purposes,  of  which  $1,252,159 
is  for  home  missions  as  now  differentiated  from  the 
earlier  conceptions,  and  $907,739  for  foreign  missions. 
Add  about  one-third  to  these  figures  for  the  Southern 
and  Cumberland  Churches.  Surely  the  fathers  of  1802 
were  building  wisely ;  and  although  we  can  hardly 
believe  that  the  most  sanguine  among  them  could  have 
pictured  the  reality  as  it  exists  to-day,  we  cannot  doubt 
that  the  eye  of  faith  and  hope  penetrated  the  future, 
and  saw  in  vision  "  the  handful  of  corn,"  scattered  by 
them  along  the  wilderness  paths,  waving  "like  the 
forest  of  Lebanon."  Will  the  next  century  show  a 
proportionate  increase — duly  and  fully  and  progressively 


28  CENTENNIAL  OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

proportionate  to  the  ministers,  Church  officers,  commu- 
nicants, -weahh,  and  o])portunities  of  to-day?  Will  we 
of  this  generation  and  this  Assembly  as  faithfully  meet 
our  responsibility  and  do  our  duty  as  did  our  fathers  of 
1802? 

4.  THE  DEPRESSING  NATIONAL  ENVIRONMENT 
In  weighing  the  actions  of  our  Church  fathers  we 
should  not  forget  the  national  danger  and  disgrace 
which  must  have  overshadowed  their  SDirits  and 
checked  their  energies.  It  was  a  depressing  period  in 
our  national  history.  Recall  your  knowledge  of  the 
first  decade  of  the  American  Republic.  As  the  eight- 
eenth century  closed,  the  country's  condition  was 
pitiable.  The  people  were  impoverished  by  the  long, 
fierce  revolutionary  struggle,  whose  heroes,  the  "  ragged 
Continentals,"  were,  if  possible,  more  ragged  in  peace 
than  in  war.  Their  hard-earned  paper  money  was 
valueless,  and  the  proverb,  still  prevalent,  fifty  years 
ago,  "  not  worth  a  Continental,"  indicated  the  condition 
of  the  discredited  currency.  The  States,  unused  to  a 
national  harness,  were  galled  and  fretted  under  it ;  and 
the  old  colonial  jealousies  and  bickerings  were  revived, 
threatening  disruption  ere  the  seams  of  the  Union  had 
been  well  closed.  There  was  an  English  faction  that 
clung  to  aristocratic  ideas  and  affiliation.  There  was  a 
strong  and  growing  French  faction,  in  sympathy  with 
the  radical  wing  of  the  French  Revolution,  organized 
into  mimic  Jacobin  clubs  called  "  Democratic  societies," 
which  subsequently  formed  a  popular  basis  for  the  old 
Republican  party.     A  western  frontier,  as  Avide  as  the 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  29 

continent,  was  threatened  at  every  point  by  Indian 
savages.  The  ISIississippi  River,  the  southwestern  and 
the  sole  practicable  outlet  of  the  frontier,  so  far  from 
flowing  "  unvexed  to  the  sea,"  was  held  at  its  mouth  by 
a  then  imperious  and  supercilious  Spain.  When,  subse- 
quently, the  Louisiana  Territory  was  yielded  to  France, 
Spain's  West  Indian  officials  bombarded  our  southeastern 
coast  with  ceaseless  insults.  From  Maine  to  the  Caro- 
linas  stretched  a  vast  seacoast  whose  nakedness  was 
guarded  by  what,  judged  by  modern  standards,  was  a 
bare  yacht  club  of  sailing  vessels  called  a  navy.  France, 
vexed  that  she  could  not  make  "  a  nose  of  dough  "  of 
her  former  American  ally,  bullied  and  browbeat  the 
Government  into  an  unofficial  war.  England  insulted 
our  flag  and  impressed  our  sailors  on  every  sea,  until  in 
sheer  desperation  we  were  driven  at  last  into  the  war 
of  1812,  a  humiliating  chapter  in  our  history,  bright- 
ened only  by  the  superb  valor  and  skill  of  our  little 
navy,  and  the  victory  of  Jackson  at  New  Orleans. 
Even  the  Algerine  pirates  of  the  Mediterranean  levied 
blackmail  upon  our  commerce  with  contemptuous  indif- 
ference. 

Without  money  ;  without  credit ;  without  honor  and 
standing  among  the  nations  ;  derided,  insulted,  snubbed, 
threatened,  robbed,  we  had  nothing  but  land — "  oceans 
of  land  " — and  indomitable  pluck  and  exuberant  faith 
in  our  manifest  destiny.  It  is  not  strange  that  under 
such  conditions  Alexander  Hamilton,  possessed  by  the 
theory  that  the  Union  could  not  be  regarded  as  stable 
until   it   had  suppressed  some   domestic   revolution  or 


30  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

united  in  some  successful  foreign  war,  should  have 
seized  upon  the  so-called  "  Western  Insurrection "  in 
the  Pennsylvania  frontiers  as  an  occasion  for  a  spectacu- 
lar demonstration  to  the  world  of  the  power  of  the  new 
government. 

All  this  must  be  remembered  if  you  would  justly  com- 
pare your  own  era  and  acts  with  the  times  and  deeds 
of  our  Church  fathers.  All  this  must  be  considered  if 
you  would  weigh  in  a  just  balance  the  characters  and 
achievements  of  the  heroes  of  that  evangelistic  army 
of  occupation  and  conquest  of  the  American  frontier. 

Ill 

The  High  Quality  of  Pioneer  Mission  Workers 

These  were  some  of  the  difficulties ;  tliere  were  some 
favoring  conditions.  The  progress  of  home  missions 
was  favored  by  the  quality  of  the  men  who  led  its  host 
both  in  the  office  and  on  the  field.  We  put  them  in 
the  same  category,  for  in  merit  and  efficiency  and  in 
title  to  honor  just  history  may  not  separate  the  one 
class  of  workers  from  the  other.  They  were  a  product 
of  conditions  of  which  great  minds  seem  to  be  a  fruitage. 
Vast  wars,  and  high  commotions,  and  extended  com- 
umnal  fermentations  and  national  revolutions  react 
strongly  upon  those  mysterious  psychical  and  physio- 
logical conditions  that  control  quality  in  the  manhood 
of  a  succeeding  generation.  The  American  llevolutiou 
was  followed  by  an  intellectual  and  spiritual  palen- 
genesis  of  the   nation.     The   evening   twilight  of  the 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  3nSSI0NS  31 

eighteenth  century  saw  the  birth  of  Irving,  Cooper, 
Halleck,  Prescott,  Bryant,  and  Bancroft.  The  dawning 
decades  of  the  nineteenth  century  welcomed  Willis, 
Longfellow,  Whittier,  Holmes,  Hawthorne,  and  Poe. 
These  leaders  in  the  literary  field  marked  time  for  the 
common  ranks  of  American  manhood  and  womanhood. 
They  were  types  of  their  times  and  generation. 

As  in  letters  and  in  other  spheres,  so  was  it  in  the 
Church.  It  was  an  era  of  high  mental  quickening. 
Nerves  were  tense,  tingling  with  the  new  vigor  of  the 
awakened  age  and  surcharged  with  life.  Men  of  high 
and  fine  qualities  were  to  the  fore.  Young  men  were 
double-winged  vnth  vital  force  and  old  men  renewed 
their  youth.  The  Church  felt  this  surge  of  the  great 
sea  of  humanity  and  rose  and  rode  upon  its  crest. 

The  men  who  consecrated  themselves  to  the  duty  of 
evangelizing  America  were  not  inferior  in  natural  gifts 
to  those  who  shone  in  letters  and  politics.  Man  for 
man,  talent  for  talent,  they  were  the  equals  of  their  fel- 
lows ;  and  if  their  greatness  has  not  been  acknowledged 
it  is  because  of  that  obliquity  of  vision  which  is  apt  to 
set  secular  above  spiritual  history,  and  which  has  left 
the  knowledge  of  our  Church's  worthiest  men  and 
worthiest  actions  to  be  buried  underneath  the  debris  of 
the  past,  almost  beyond  the  hope  of  historic  resurrec- 
tion. Against  such  injustice  the  voice  of  your  Presby- 
terian Historical  Society  has  cried  for  half  a  century, 
for  to-day  marks  its  Jubilee  Year. 

The  Church  and  the  cause  owe  an  incalculable  debt 
to  the  fine  ability,  the  splendid  optimism,  the  quenchless 


32  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

courage,  the  liigb  consecration,  the  pure  evangelical  zeal, 
and  the  superior  leadership  of  the  early  presbyters,  min- 
isters and  elders  alike,  of  the  original  thirteen  States. 
Necessarily  it  fell  to  them  both  to  plan  and  to  push  the 
campaign  for  continental  evangelization  and  to  supply 
the  men  for  the  service. 

Then  they  had  agents  for  the  work  of  the  highest  and 
finest  caliber.  Call  the  roll  of  the  home  missionary 
heroes  and  their  no  less  heroic  wives,  who  broke  ground 
for  Christian  faith  and  evangelization  on  the  frontiers 
of  the  original  Colonies  and  the  middle  West.  They 
are  all  children  of  the  East ;  nurtured  in  and  sent  forth 
from  the  Motlierland  of  Home  Missions — the  States  of 
the  Atlantic  slope.  This  work  their  successors  in  the 
ever-expanding  West  received  by  good  heredity,  and  in 
their  hands  the  standard  was  not  allowed  to  droop  or 
falter  ;  but  the  initiative,  the  creative  purpose,  the  forma- 
tive plans  and  their  execution  must  be  credited  to  the 
Atlantic  States. 

President  Roosevelt,  in  his  Winni7ig  of  the  West, 
has  given  this  graphic  pen  picture  of  one  of  these  heroic 
knights  of  the  Evangel :  "  His  name  was  Samuel  Doak. 
He  came  from  New  Jersey,  and  had  been  educated  at 
Princeton.  Possessed  of  the  vigorous  energy  that  marks 
the  true  pioneer  spirit,  he  determined  to  cast  his  lot 
with  the  frontier  folk.  He  walked  through  Maryland 
and  Virginia,  driving  before  him  an  old  '  flea-bitten 
gray '  horse,  loaded  with  a  sackful  of  books,  crossed  the 
Alleghenies,  and  came  down  along  blazed  trails  to  the 
Holston  settlements.     The  hardy  people  among  whom 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  33 

he  took  up  his  abode  were  able  to  appreciate  his  learning 
and  religion  as  much  as  they  admired  his  adventurous, 
indomitable  temper;  and  the  stern,  hard,  God-fearing 
man  became  a  most  powerful  influence  for  good  through- 
out the  whole  formative  period  of  the  Southwest." 

He  founded  the  first  church  in  that  cradle  spot  of 
Tennessee,  a  log  house  built  near  Jonesboro  in  1777 
and  christened  "  Salem  Church."  More  than  that,  he 
built  the  first  log  high  school,  which  developed  into 
Washington  College,  Tennessee,  the  first  educational 
institution  in  the  Southwest.  No  wonder  our  virile 
President's  heart  warmed  toward  such  a  strenuous  char- 
acter as  Missionary  Doak.  Aye,  they  were  men,  those 
early  home  missionaries,  full  men,  tested  by  the  most 
exacting  mensuration  !  Mr.  Roosevelt's  description  is 
t}^ical.  It  fits  hundreds  of  home  missionaries  of  our 
pioneer  days,  and  of  every  decade  in  the  hundred  years 
succeeding.  The  history  of  home  missions  finely  illus- 
trates the  truth  of  George  Whitefield's  epigrammatic 
argument  to  John  Witherspoon  when  urging  him  to 
accept  the  call  to  America :  "  Every  goivnsman  in  the 
Colonies  is  worth  a  legion !"  The  trained  gownsmen, 
the  educated  ministers  of  our  "  Church  in  the  \Yilder- 
ness,"  were  a  veritable  "  Tenth  Legion  "  in  Christian 
valor,  devotion,  and  success. 

That  century-old  type  is  persistent.  Professor  Brum- 
baugh, late  Commissioner  of  Education  in  Porto  Rico, 
in  an  address  given  a  week  ago  in  your  speaker's 
church  in  Philadelphia,  paid  a  well-deserved  tribute 
to  the  character  of  one  of  our  missionaries  in  the  field 
3 


34  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

that  lies  farthest  toward  the  sunrise  of  all  our  home 
missions. 

"  I  cannot  quite  forgive  the  Presbyterians/'  said  Pro- 
fessor Brumbaugh,  "  for  removing  from  Porto  Rico 
such  a  man  as  Dr.  Green.  I  have  heard  him  preach  to 
thousands  of  peons,  who  crowded  round  him  and  hung 
with  breathless  interest  upon  his  words.  I  have  seen  a 
whole  neighborhood  transformed  by  his  apostolic  labors. 
Their  shack  houses  that  reeked  with  filth,  where  goats 
and  hogs  herded  with  men,  women,  and  children,  were 
changed  as  by  magic  into  clean,  white-washed  human 
homes,  brightened  and  sweetened  by  flowers,  and  sanc- 
tified by  a  new-born  piety,  and  dedicated  to  a  higher 
and  purer  family  life."  That  was  a  fine  testimony  from 
a  worthy  man  to  a  noble  pioneer  missionary  of  our 
eastern  insular  frontier. 

Those  men  of  1802  and  their  faithful  wives  were  old 
fashioned  in  their  views  and  utterances  of  Bible  truths. 
Yet  they  lived  and  wrought  their  duty  after  a  fashion 
that  never  grows  old,  for  they  maintained  and  illustrated 
the  eternally  new  facts  of  Christian  love  and  zeal  for  the 
highest  good  of  the  world.  They  clung  to  the  old  con- 
fessional words  "  goodness  "  and  "  mercy  "  and  "  com- 
passion "  in  presenting  the  divine  love.  But  never  did 
men  and  women  more  thoroughly  than  they  interpret, 
in  their  lives  of  single-hearted  devotion  to  Christian 
service,  the  fundamental  law  of  Christ  that  requires  us 
to  love  our  neighbor  as  ourselves.  If  to  spend  their 
days  in  toil  and  their  niglits  in  watching ;  to  endure 
hardship  and  perils  in  the  wilderness,  in  the  forest,  in 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  35 

the  cabin,  in  the  face  of  savage  Indians  and  hostile  or 
unsympathetic  countrymen ;  if  to  be  often  in  hunger, 
and  always  in  poverty  ;  to  burn  with  fever,  and  shiver 
with  ague,  and  ache  with  rheumatism  ;  if  to  separate 
themselves  from  the  delights  of  civilization  and  the 
haunts  of  learning ;  to  labor  much  and  to  earn  little ;  to 
give  forth  their  whole  energy,  skill,  care,  and  culture,  to 
elevate,  bless,  and  save  their  fellows,  and  at  last  to  die  in 
penury  and  leave  their  widows  and  orphans  a  legacy  to 
Providence, — if  all  that  be  to  know  and  feel  and  teach 
and  live  the  truth  that  "  God  is  love,"  and  that  man's 
highest  duty  is  to  love  God  wholly  and  to  love  one's 
neighbor  as  himself,  then.  Moderator  and  brethren,  those 
old-fashioned,  doctrinal-preaching,  Catechism-teaching 
evangelizers  of  the  American  wilderness  are  not  un- 
worthy examples  for  the  men  and  Avomen  of  this  gen- 
eration. Still  they  are  teachers  of  that  charity,  "  the 
greatest  thing  in  the  world,"  at  whose  feet  we,  even  in 
this  age,  whose  glory  is  its  great  charities  and  whose 
banner  cry  is  love,  may  humbly  sit,  and  whose  heads 
we  may  crown  with  the  blessing  of  Abu-ben-i\dam. 
Their  life-long  career  was  a  mission  of  loving  helpful- 
ness in  saving,  civilizing,  and  uplifting  their  fellow-men. 
We  do  not  like,  perhaps,  their  ways  of  putting  Bible 
truth,  and  their  lack  of  elasticity  in  certain  methods  and 
forms.  We  are  not  in  sympathy  with  the  old  country 
manners  and  seventeenth  century  methods  which  clung 
to  some  of  them.  But  look  at  their  lives  of  holy  and 
unselfish  and  loving  devotion,  often  even  unto  death,  to 
the  sublime  duty  of  planting  the  seeds  of  Christian  faith. 


36  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  IHSSIONS 

holiness,  and  love  in  that  wilderness  land.  It  is  enough  ! 
Said  Chillingworth,  "  The  Bible  is  the  meaning  of  the 
Bible."  So,  of  those  noble  heroes  of  gospel  charity,  we 
declare  that  their  doctrine  is  the  meaning  of  their  doc- 
trine ;  their  history  is  the  meaning  of  their  history. 
And  do  you  ask  what  that  meaning  is?  Behold  the 
order,  the  law,  the  prosperity,  the  virtue,  the  happiness 
of  those  States  and  communities  Avherein  they  toiled. 
It  is  the  "  monument,  more  enduring  than  brass,"  of 
those  home  missionary  men  and  women  who  loved  God 
supremely  and  loved  their  neighbors  as  themselves. 

IV 

Early  Missionary  Spirit  of  the  Church 

The  work  of  missions  was  not  new  in  the  Presby- 
terian Church  even  a  century  ago.  In  his  sermon  yes- 
terday Moderator  van  Dyke  called  this  year  the  "one 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  marriage  of  the  Church 
to  home  missions."  We  will  not  deny  the  banns,  nor 
challenge  the  figure  of  speech  ;  but  we  must  claim,  at 
least,  that  the  parties  were  engaged,  and  as  "good  as 
married,"  more  than  a  hundred  years  before  the  wedding. 
From  the  beginning  ours  was  a  missionary  Church.  The 
fathers  and  founders  had  a  good  grip  of  the  situation, 
for  they  all  were  home  evangelists,  from  Denton  and 
Makemie  down.  In  the  original  "  Presbytery,"  in  the 
mother  "  General  Synod,"  in  the  two  synods  into  which 
it  was  divided,  and  in  the  reunion  "  Synod  of  New  York 
and    Philadelphia,"   the   matter  of  missions,  including 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  37 

Indian  evangelization,  was  the  chief  concern  at  every 
meeting. 

The  first  General  Assembly  of  1789  enjoined  its  fonr 
synods — Pliiladelj^hia,  New  York  and  New  Jersey, 
Virginia,  and  the  Carolinas — to  j)rovide  and  recom- 
mend each  two  missionaries,  and  to  take  np  collections 
to  support  them  in  the  field.  Young  ministers  and 
licentiates,  as  well  as  settled  pastors,  were  frequently 
sent  forth  on  Avhat  Dr.  Aslibel  Green  called  "  their  ex- 
cursions of  benevolence,"  into  the  adjoining  regions  and 
distant  parts.  These  tours  of  duty  long  continued  to  be 
the  prevailing  custom. 

The  act  of  1802  was  a  step  forward  in  organization ^ 
not  in  spirit.  It  created  a  Standing  Committee  of 
Missions,  with  substantially  the  powers  and  duties  of 
the  present  Board  of  Home  Missions.  Like  the  "Board 
of  Missions,"  into  which  it  was  constituted  in  1816, 
it  really  embraced  the  work  of  evangelizing  both  the 
whites  and  the  heathen  Indians  as  w^ell  as  tlie  negro 
slaves  and  freedmen.  Not  until  thirty-five  years  there- 
after was  a  distinctively  Foreign  Mission  Board  organ- 
ized. But  in  the  early  stages  of  the  Assembly's  work 
missions  to  the  heathen  were  limited  to  the  Indian 
tribes  of  North  America.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the 
title  given  the  new  organization  was  not  the  Standing 
Committee  of  Home  Missions,  but  "  the  Standing  Com- 
mittee of  Missions." 

Within  the  powers  invested  in  that  committee  lay  in 
germ  all  the  boards  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  as  now 
constituted,  which  deal  with  the  work  of  evangelization. 


38  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

home  missions  occupied  the  foremost  place.  One  of 
tlie  first  acts  of  the  Standiiii:;  Committee  was  to  continue 
the  work  of  evangelizing  the  colored  people.  One  of 
its  most  successful  missionaries  was  a  minister  of  color, 
the  Rev.  John  Chavis ;  and  of  the  white  race  was  Dr. 
John  H.  Rice,  who,  in  the  spirit  of  the  early  apostles, 
and  of  recent  missionaries  to  Africa,  devoted  himself 
to  his  colored  brethren  in  the  slave  States.  Therein 
also  was  included  the  work  of  the  Board  of  Publication  ; 
for  the  newly  appointed  committee  stimulated  and 
directed  the  distribution  of  religious  literature.  It  con- 
sidered also  the  work  of  ministerial  education.  It  was, 
in  fact,  the  one  great  evangelizing  agency  of  the  Church, 
out  of  Avhich,  by  gradual  and  necessary  development, 
all  its  separate  boards  have  been  evolved.  This  cen- 
tenary, commemorative  of  the  formation  of  that  Stand- 
ing Committee,  is  therefore  an  event  that  concerns  the 
entire  Church  and  all  its  now  distinct  evangelizing 
organs  and  agents. 

The  formal  origin  of  that  act  of  1802  issued  from  a 
recommendation  made  by  a  body  whose  existence  and 
functions  are  rarely  thought  of  and  but  little  known, 
although  it  carries  the  corporate  life  of  our  Church. 
There  was  laid  before  the  Assembly  "  a  communication 
from  the  Trustees  of  the  General  Assembly  "  proposing 
the  formation  of  "a  standing  committee  for  financial 
purposes,"  and  suggesting  several  arrangements  for 
securing  and  managing  the  missionary  funds.  This  led 
to  a  motion  that  the  Assembly  commit  the  general  man- 
agement of  missionary  business  to  a  standing  committee. 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  39 

The  motion  was  referred  to  a  eommittee  consisting  of 
Dr.  Aslibel  Green,  Kev.  Azel  Backus,  Rev.  Nathaniel 
Irwin,  ministers ;  and  ruling  elders,  the  Hon.  Eben- 
ezer  Hazard  and  Colonel  John  Bayard.  It  is  worthy 
of  notice  that  Mr.  Backus,  who  was  one  of  the  two  dele- 
gates from  the  General  Association  of  Connecticut,  was 
appointed  to  such  an  important  place,  and  thus  helped 
to  shape  the  action  which  is  commemorated  to-day. 
The  presence  of  a  Congregational  minister  on  this  com- 
mittee was  in  accord  with  that  spirit  which  more  than 
two  hundred  years  ago  (1690)  united  the  Presbyterians 
and  the  independents  of  England  in  evangelistic  work, 
and  led  to  the  Saybrook  platform  of  New  England 
in  1708. 

Y 

Personnel  of  the  Commissioners 

The  General  Assembly  of  1802  met  in  the  First 
Church  of  Philadelphia,  the  old  sanctuary  on  INIarket 
Street,  built  in  1704,  rebuilt  in  1793,  and  occupied  for 
116  years.  It  was  not  as  large  as  many  of  our  modern 
presbyteries,  having  only  48  commissioners — 33  minis- 
ters and  15  elders — not  a  twelfth  part  of  the  Assembly 
of  to-day.  These  men  came  from  only  seven  States : 
Pennsylvania,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Maryland,  Dela- 
ware, Virginia,  and  South  Carolina.  A  striking  con- 
trast this  with  its  successor  of  1902,  which  embraces 
commissioners  from  nearly  every  State  and  Territory  of 
the  Republic,  from  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  from 
many  foreign  couutries  representing  our  world-wide  work 


40  CENTENNIAL  OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

of  lieathcn  cvanoelization.  But  iu  the  character  of  its 
members  and  the  influeuce  of  some  of  its  acts  it  was  a 
notable  body.  Its  roll  contained  the  names  of  nine  men 
who  had  been  elected  or  were  "  elected  "  to  be  moder- 
ators of  the  General  Assembly.  These  men  were  John 
Rodgers  (1789),  Nathaniel  Irwin  (1801),  Azcl  Roe 
(1802),  Philip  Milledoler  (1808),  James  Richards  (1808), 
Eliphalet  Nott  (1811),  James  Inglis  (1814),  Ashbel 
Green  (1824),  and  Francis  Herron  (1827).  Among  its 
elder  commissioners  were  such  honored  men  as  Colonel 
John  Bayard,  Postmaster-general  Ebenezer  Hazard, 
Isaac  Snowden,  and  Senator  Jonathan  Elmer. 

1.  THE  ASSEMBLY'S  MISSIONARY  LEADER— DR.  GREEN 

The  commissioner  entitled  to  the  first  honor  in  the 
Missionary  Centennial  is  Ashbel  Green.  If  any  man 
deserves  the  title  of  father  of  organized  home  missions 
in  the  Presbyterian  Church  it  is  he.  He  was  then 
(1802)  forty  years  old,  in  the  middle  prime  of  his  man- 
hood ;  and  his  ability  and  zeal  iu  the  cause  marked  him 
as  the  fitting  chairman  of  the  committee  to  put  into 
shape  the  proposed  action  to  systematize  the  Church's 
missionary  work.  Dr.  Green  had  a  commanding  bodily 
l)resence,  a  florid  complexion,  regular  features,  promi- 
nent aquiline  nose.  But  the  great  feature  of  his  face 
was  his  eye — full,  dark,  brilliant,  imperative,  gleaming, 
underneath  shaggy  eyebrows.  He  was  a  gentleman  of 
the  old  school,  the  school  in  which  Washington,  his 
friend,  had  been  cultured.  Almost  to  the  end  of  his 
life  he  retained  the  clerical  wig  and  queue  common  to 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  41 

the  f]:;cntlemen  of  liis  ])cri()(l,  and  as  lio  moved  tlirmigli 
the  streets  of  Phihidelphia  his  dignified  bearing,  liis 
antique  and  stately  manners  impressed  with  reverence 
those  whom  he  met.  He  filled  with  distinguished  merit 
every  position  to  which  he  was  called.  As  a  writer  and 
one  of  the  pioneer  editors  of  the  Church  he  wielded  a 
ready  and  forcible  pen,  and  won  a  wide  influence.  In 
the  Church  courts  he  was  a  faithful  presbyter  and  a 
wise  leader.  As  president  for  over  ten  years  of  Prince- 
ton College  he  contributed  largely  to  the  permanent 
success  of  that  institution,  and  earned  as  an  educator 
the  frood  deo-ree  that  he  attained  in  other  fields.  As  a 
patriot,  as  a  scholar,  as  a  preacher,  as  an  educator,  as  a 
writer  and  editor,  as  an  ecclesiastic,  and  as  the  father 
of  organized  missions,  he  was  preeminent  among  the 
men  of  his  period,  and  takes  rank  as  one  of  the  great 
men  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  He  was  identified 
with  its  work  from  the  beginning,  and  in  every  relation 
proved  himself  a  devoted  son  and  servant  during  his 
long  career. 

Of  the  Standing  Committee  of  Missions,  which  the 
Assembly  of  1802  adopted  upon  his  report,  he  was 
made  the  first  chairman,  and  so  continued  for  ten  and 
a  half  years,  until  he  left  Philadelphia  for  Princeton. 
As  the  committee  had  neither  secretary  nor  executive 
committee,  the  laboring  oar  was  in  his  hands.  When 
in  1822  he  returned  to  Philadelphia  from  Princeton  he 
found  the  Board  of  Missions,  which  had  been  created 
in  1816,  greatly  reduced  in  its  funds  and  its  activity 
almost  paralyzed.     He  wrote  an  overture  to  the  Assem- 


42  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

bly  which  stirred  the  body  mightily,  and  led  to  the 
reorganization  of  the  Board  in  182G,  with  the  distinct 
specification  of  powers  to  appoint  an  executive  com- 
mittee and  a  corresponding  secretary,  and  to  prosecut(; 
missions,  both  domestic  and  foreign,  and  to  pay  mis- 
sionaries with  no  other  restriction  than  making  an 
annual  report  to  the  General  Assembly.  Of  this  re- 
organized Board  Dr.  Green  was  elected  president  and 
was  made  chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee.  For 
many  years  the  meetings  of  the  committee  were  held  in 
his  study.  It  was  due  in  a  large  measure  to  his  zeal, 
unfailing  interest,  and  wisdom  that  the  Board  was 
nurtured  into  a  new  life,  and  started  upon  its  career  of 
noble  Christian  philanthropy.  When  the  foreign  mis- 
sionary cause  was  diiferentiated  from  home  missions, 
and  entered  upon  its  career  of  world-wide  evangeliza- 
tion. Dr.  Green  showed  almost  equal  zeal  in  shaping  its 
w^ork.  He  wrote  the  overture  to  the  Assembly  of  1803, 
on  the  education  of  pious  youth,  which  was  the  germ 
of  the  Board  of  Ministerial  Education,  and  which  led 
to  the  establishment  of  the  first  theological  seminary  of 
the  Church,  located  at  Princeton.  The  plan  of  govern- 
ing the  seminary  was  the  product  of  his  pen.  He  was 
the  first  President  of  its  Board  of  Directors,  and  re- 
tained that  position  to  the  end  of  his  life.  In  the 
General  Assembly  of  1825  he  moved  the  resolution 
which  led  to  the  establishment  of  the  \Yestern  Theologi- 
cal Seminary  at  Allegheny.  He  was  a  member  of  all 
the  boards  or  corporations  of  the  Church  during  his 
day,  including  the  Trustees  of  the  General  Assembly. 


CENTENNIAL  OF  HOME  MISSIONS  43 

2.  OTHER  PROMINENT  COMMISSIONERS 
The  members  of  the  Assembly  of  1802,  both  ministers 
and  elders,  were  worthy  followers  of  their  distinguished 
leader.  The  retiring  Moderator  was  the  Rev.  Nathaniel 
Irwin,  of  Neshaminy.  His  text  was  Luke  xiv :  23, 
'*  Compel  them  to  come  in  "  ;  and — shall  we  say  uncon- 
sciously, or  was  it  of  purpose  ? — gave  the  keynote  of  the 
profound  missionary  spirit  of  the  Assembly  and  a 
prophecy  of  its  chief  act.  Mr.  Irwin  was  one  of  the 
few  untitled  moderators,  but  he  was  none  the  less  well 
worthy  of  the  high  office.  He  was  an  able  and  eloquent 
preacher.  In  the  revolutionary  struggle  he  was  a  firm 
and  aggressive  patriot.  He  was  a  self-trained  physician, 
having  studied  medicine  that,  in  the  great  dearth  of  pro- 
fessional medical  service  which  marked  that  era,  he 
might  care  for  the  bodily  ailments  of  his  flock.^  He 
was  a  man  of  strong  scientific  tendencies,  and  was  one 
of  the  earliest  friends  and  patrons  of  John  Fitch,  the  in- 
ventor. He  was  fond  of  music,  and  played  the  violin  ; 
and  there  is  a  tradition,  apparently  well  founded,  that 
he  did  not  scruple  to  exercise  his  gifts  at  harvest-time, 
that  his  workmen  might  enjoy  a  moonlight  dance  upon 
the  manse  green.  He  was  buried  on  the  spot  where  the 
old  pulpit  of  Neshaminy  had  stood,  and  there  he  sleeps 
among  the  fathers  of  that  venerable  sanctuary. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Azel  Roe  was  chosen  the  Moderator  of 
the  Assembly  of  1802.     He  was  a  graduate  and  subse- 

^  A  box  containing  the  scales  and  weights  with  which  Mr.  Irwin 
weighed  out  medicines  is  in  the  possession  of  the  Presbyterian  His- 
torical Society  in  Philadelphia. 


44  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

qucntly  a  trustee  of  Princeton  Colleijo.  He  -vvas  one  of 
the  revolutionary  heroes  among  tlic  fatliers  and  founders 
of  our  Church,  having  served  as  a  chaplain  in  the  War 
for  Independence.  On  one  occasion,  when  the  ranks  of 
his  regiment  had  been  broken  before  an  assault  of  the 
enemy,  he  is  said  to  have  rushed  into  the  breach  and 
gallantly  led  the  faltering  soldiers  back  to  their  duty  on 
the  firing  line.  He  was  a  man  of  graceful  and  dignified 
manners,  with  a  fine  head  and  handsome  face.^ 

Most  eminent  among  the  commissioners  was  Dr.  John 
Rodgers,  of  New  York.  An  able  preaclier,  an  influ- 
ential leader,  a  leading  patriot,  the  gallant  chaplain  of 
Heath's  Colonial  Brigade,  the  trusted  friend  and  coun- 
selor of  Washington,  he  was  well  worthy  to  be  the  first 
elected  Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly.  He  was 
seventy-five  years  old  in  1802,  a  venerable  and  imposing 
figure,  with  his  buzz  wig  and  well  polished  silver- 
buckle  shoes  and  knee  breeches,  and  was  an  object  of 
universal  interest  and  reverent  attention. 

James  Richards,  the  Moderator  of  1805,  was  the  first 
President  of  Auburn  Theological  Seminary. 

Philip  Milledoler,  the  Moderator  of  1808,  represented 
in  his  own  person  a  sort  of  Catholic  Protestantism  and 
Pan-Presbyterianism.  He  was  converted  in  a  Metho- 
dist meeting,  graduated  at  an  Episcopalian  college, 
ordained  a  German  Reformed  minister,  called  and  in- 

^  The  excellent  likeness  of  Dr.  Roe,  which  is  the  frontispiece  of 
the  paper  in  the  Journal  of  the  Presbyterian  Historical  Society,  here- 
after referred  to,  was  engraved  from  a  jiortrait  in  the  possession  of 
his  descendants,  tlie  Misses  Munro,  of  New  York  city. 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  45 

stalled  a  Presbyterian  pastor  in  Pliiladelpliia  and  New 
York,  and  after  being  a  pastor  of  the  Collegiate  Dutch 
Church,  in  New  York,  and  President  of  Rutgers  Col- 
lege, died  in  1852. 

Eliphalet  Nott  was  the  Moderator  of  1811,  a  finished 
orator,  and  the  eminent  President  of  Union  College. 
James  Inglis,  of  Baltimore,  was  the  Moderator  of  1814  ; 
and  Francis  Herron,  the  young  Pittsburg  pastor,  was 
the  Moderator  of  1827. 

Among  the  ministers  of  note  were  Professor  Kollock, 
William  Sloan,  and  John  Ewing  Latta,  subsequently  a 
permanent  clerk  ;  Nathan  Grier,  of  Brandywine  Manor ; 
and  Chaplain  Robert  Cooper,  of  Middle  Spring,  the 
pastor  of  a  Scotch-Irish  congregation  in  the  Cumber- 
land Valley,  whose  record  for  patriotic  service  in  three 
wars — the  French  and  Indian,  the  Revolutionary,  and 
the  War  of  1812 — is  probably  unequaled  in  any  period 
of  our  history,  by  any  other  congregation. 

From  the  frontiers  came  John  Watson,  the  first  Presi- 
dent of  Jefferson  College,  and  Matthew  Brown,  the  first 
President  of  Washington  College,  and  for  twenty-three 
years  the  President  of  Jefferson.  From  the  same  sec- 
tion were  "  the  silver-tongued  Marquis "  and  Samuel 
Tait,  the  pack-horse  boy  and  farmer  of  Ligonier,  who, 
like  Cincinnatus,  was  called  at  the  plow  to  his  ministry. 
There  were  others  almost  equally  worthy  of  mention, 
but  these  were  among  the  leaders,  and  they  were  types 
of  the  ministerial  members  of  that  remarkable  Assembly.^ 

^  An  extended  notice  of  the  members  and  principal  acts  of  the 
Assembly  of  1802,  prepared  by  Dr.  McCook,  is  printed  in  the  June 


46  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

3.  EULIXG  ELDER  COMMISSIONEES 

The  elder  commissioners  were  of  equal  honor  and 
ability.  The  presence  of  citizens  distinj^uished  in  the 
various  walks  of  life  is  no  rarity  in  the  highest  court 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  The  ^A' hite  House,  the 
gubernatorial  chair,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  senators  and  representatives  in  Congress,  judges, 
soldiers,  lawyers,  physicians,  philantliropists,  merchant 
princes,  and  captains  of  industry,  have  all  and  often 
been  represented  there.  But  in  that  century-ago  Assem- 
bly, in  proportion  to  the  number  of  elders  present,  there 
was  an  unusually  large  number  of  eminent  non-min- 
isterial presbyters. 

The  mother  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia  sent  three 
commissioners  who  would  have  been  men  of  mark  in 
any  assembly.  The  Hon.  Ebenezer  Hazard  had  served 
as  Postmaster-general  of  the  United  States,  having 
succeeded  Mr.  Bache  in  that  position  in  1789.  He  was 
one  of  America's  pioneer  historians,  and  was  one  of  the 
seven  original  members  of  the  new  "  Standing  Commit- 
tee of  Missions."  The  Hon.  Jonathan  Elmer  was  a 
man  of  versatile  talents.  As  a  physician,  a  revolution- 
ary soldier  and  surgeon,  a  State  legislator,  a  lawyer,  a 
jurist,  and  as  a  Representative  in  Congress,  and  a  Senator 
of  the  United  States  from  New  Jersey,  lie  proved  his 
greatness  and  worth.  Elder  Isaac  Snowdcn  was  the 
faithful    treasurer    of    the    Trustees    of    the    General 

number  (1902)  of  the  Journal  of  the  Presbyterian  Historical  Society, 
Witberspoon  Building,  Pbiladelpbia.  Those  who  wish  further  his- 
torical information  would  do  well  to  consult  that  paper. 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  47 

Assembly,  and  as  such  his  hand  probably  gave  the  first 
impulse  to  the  movement  which,  on  the  recommendation  of 
the  trustees,  resulted  in  the  appointment  of  the  Standing 
Committee  of  Missions.  Perhaps  a  Philadelphia  pres- 
byter ought  to  apologize  for  the  prominence  given  his 
adopted  city  in  this  rapid  sketch.  But  the  historian 
is  not  responsible  therefor,  but  the  facts !  However 
"  slow  "  the  modern  Philadelphia  may  be  held  to  be  in 
the  squib  of  the  newspaper  paragrapher  and  the  thread- 
bare jest  of  the  humorist,  the  hands  that  uncover  the 
records  wherein  are  written  the  deeds  of  those  who 
wrought  at  the  making  of  our  nation  and  of  our 
Church,  will  find  first  and  foremost  in  every  field  the 
sons  and  citizens  of  Philadelphia  ! 

The  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick  sent  Colonel  John 
Bayard,  perhaps  the  most  distinguished  of  the  ruling 
elder  commissioners.  Born  in  Maryland,  he  came  in 
early  life  to  Philadelphia,  where  the  chief  incidents  in 
his  noble  career  were  achieved.  From  the  beginning 
of  the  agitation  for  national  independence  he  Avas  an 
ardent  patriot.  In  the  Provincial  Congress,  in  the 
Convention  of  the  Province,  in  the  Council  of  Safety, 
as  the  associate  of  Franklin,  Rittenhouse,  Wayne, 
Robert  ^Morris,  Poberdeau,  Joseph  Read,  and  John 
Cadwallader,  he  was  active  and  useful.  As  Colonel  of 
the  Second  Infantry  Battalion  of  the  Philadelphia  Asso- 
ciators  he  saw  service  in  the  battles  of  the  Brandywine, 
Germantown,  and  Princeton,  and  in  the  last-named 
engagement  was  personally  complimented  l)y  General 
Washington    for   his   gallantry.     A    large   part   of  his 


48  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

considerable  fortune  was  spent  in  Lis  country's  service, 
and  he  well  deserved  the  commendation  of  the  historian 
Bancroft,  as  "  a  patriot  of  singular  purity  of  character 
and  disinterestedness,  personally  brave,  earnest,  and 
devout."  ^  For  thirty  years  he  was  a  trustee  of 
Princeton  College.  He  was  one  of  the  most  frequent 
and  faithful  representatives  of  his  Presbytery  in  the 
General  Assembly. 

From  the  "far  West,"  then  the  frontier  of  Pennsylva- 
nia, the  Presbytery  of  Ohio  sent  a  Scotch-Irish  Revolu- 
tionary veteran,  who  bore  a  name  which  Americans  will 
never  cease  to  honor — William  McKinley.  This  com- 
missioner was  apparently  a  brother  of  the  great-grand- 
father of  President  McKinley,  the  gallant  soldier,  the 
pure  citizen,  the  wise  statesman,  the  devout  Christian, 
whose  untimely  death  was  mourned  by  a  weeping 
world.  Although  this  great  man  was  a  faithful  com- 
municant of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  his 
paternal  ancestors  were  members  of  our  own  com- 
munion. By  a  happy  coincidence  one  of  his  name  and 
blood  is  an  honored  commissioner  in  this  Assembly  of 
1902,  as  one  was  a  hundred  years  ago. 

These  were  some  of  the  men  who  a  century  ago  framed 
the  policy  of  imperial  missionary  extension  which  has 
spread  our  great  Church,  with  all  its  beneficent  acts 
and  institutions,  from  the  Atlantic  Slope  to  the  Pacific 
Coast.     Having  sublime  trust  in  God  and  in  the  future, 

^  See  the  Journal  of  the  Presbyterian  Historical  Society,  June, 
1902,  and  a  paper  by  General  James  Grant  Wilson  in  the  New  York 
Geneological  and  Biographical  Record,  1885. 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  49 

they  threw  down  the  gauntlet  to  the  seennngly  impos- 
sible, and  challenged  the  religious  chaos  of  a  continent, 
and  claimed  it  for  God.  One  cannot  think  of  the  simple 
faith  and  fervent  zeal  for  the  salvation  of  men  which  led 
our  fathers  calmly  to  face  immensities  of  distance  and 
of  difficulty,  and  set  their  weakness  and  poverty  to  the 
task  of  occupying  this  continent  for  Christ  and  his 
Church,  without  a  swelling  of  heart  in  lawful  pride  and 
gratitude  for  the  gift  of  such  men.  Since  the  time  when 
the  Lord's  apostles  sallied  forth,  a  mere  squad,  Avithout 
money  or  rank  or  social  power,  to  evangelize  a  hostile 
world,  there  have  been  few  acts  of  sublimer  faith  or 
loftier  Christian  heroism.  To  the  man  who  has  not 
learned  the  lesson  which  history  everywhere  teaches — 
that  it  is  unAvise  to  despise  the  day  of  small  things — it 
would  seem  trivial,  perhaps  absurd,  at  least  pitiful,  the 
manner  in  which  the  Assembly  of  1802  pondered  the 
petty  details  of  their  few  missionaries'  service,  and  the 
small  gifts  for  the  work.  But  it  may  well  be  questioned 
whether,  in  that  truer  judgment  which  heaven  gives, 
and  which  takes  into  view  the  conditions  and  relations 
of  men,  we  of  to-day  are  not  the  palterers. 

Think  of  their  poverty  and  our  abundance  ;  of  their 
sacrifices  and  sufferings  and  our  self-indulgence  and 
comforts  ;  of  the  perils  faced  by  them  and  of  our  com- 
parative safety  in  service ;  of  their  painful  toils  in  pene- 
trating the  wilderness  and  the  ease  of  modern  travel ; 
of  the  scantiness  of  their  numbers,  and  of  the  mighty 
hosts  with  their  experience,  piety,  wisdom,  wealth,  and 
enthusiasm  that  stand  back  of  our  home  missionaries 

4 


50  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

iu  this  twentieth  ccutury.  In  the  comparative  view, 
does  not  the  splendid  re[)ort  that  your  Board  and  its 
secretary  bring  you  this  year  pale  before  the  simple  tale 
of  the  labors,  the  gifts,  and  the  successes  of  a  hundred 
years  ago?  It  is  an  electric  light  of  many  volts  that 
wc  hold  up  in  this  Home  Missionary  Centenary,  but 
it  shines  in  the  midst  of  a  nation  of  eighty  millions, 
the  wealthiest  in  the  world.  It  was  a  tallow-dip  candle 
that  the  flithers  bore  aloft,  but  it  shone  in  the  Cerberian 
darkness  of  a  wilderness  land.  Let  God  be  the  Judge ; 
but  let  us  take  a  sharp  account  of  our  own  stock  to-day 
while  considering  the  fathers'  work — "  lest  we  forget." 
Hard  as  was  their  lot,  inadequate  as  seems  their  earthly 
reward,  we  do  not  pity  them.  No  ;  we  praise  them,  we 
envy  them  !  Their  heaven-assigned  duty  they  did 
heartily  and  wtU.  Doubtless  they  were  tempted,  as 
we  too  have  been,  to  halt  in  work,  to  turn  therefrom 
disheartened,  to  think  it  too  hard  a  task,  a  heavy  and 
a  thankless  burden.  Yet  God  granted  them  the  prayer 
— as  God  will  grant  to  us — which  he  who  sits  in  your 
Moderator's  chair  has  lately  voiced  in  song : — 

"  Let  me  but  find  it  in  my  heart  to  say, 
When  vagrant  wishes  beckon  me  astray, — 

'  This  is  my  work  ;  my  blessing,  not  my  doom  ! 
Of  all  who  live,  I  am  the  one  by  whom 
This  work  can  best  be  done  iu  the  right  way.'  "  ^ 

Pardon  your  speaker  if  he  tunes  his  rugged  harp  to 

1  Henry  van  Dyke,  "  The  Three  Best  Things." — Tli,e  Outlook,  May 
3,  1902. 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  51 

siiio;  ii  tlioiiglit  of  comment  ou   our  Poct-Modcrator's 
verse  : — 

There  saug  the  Calvinist ;  and  in  his  lays 
He  voiced  the  mighty  purpose  of  those  days 

When  men  went  forth  as  chosen  of  the  Lord 

To  seed  a  continent  with  Jesus'  word, 
And  win  a  chosen  people  to  his  ways. 

'Twas  meant  not  thus,  mayhap ;  but,  as  the  rill 
Breaks  from  its  spring-head  in  the  granite  hill, 
And  sings  its  song  of  sweetness  as  it  goes, 
And  brightens  all  the  course  o'er  which  it  flows, 
Fulfilling  still  the  Master's  sovereign  will. 

Yet  so  it  is  ;  the  men  whose  hands  shall  guide 
An  erring  race  back  to  the  Saviour's  side, 
Have  felt  the  seizure  of  the  heavenly  Hand 
To  tread  the  path  that  God  in  them  has  planned. 
And  do  the  task  that  none  may  do  beside. 

The  dipper  by  the  wayside  well  hangs  free  ; 
The  mountain  holds  the  spring  by  God's  decree  ; 

Kind  were  the  hands  that  hung  the  dipper  there. 

Thank  God  for  all !     But,  stop,  and  full  and  fair 
Write  high  their  names  who,  for  God's  charity, 
Have  opened  up  the  fount  for  all — and  thee  I 


FROM  THE  ALLEGHENIES  TO  THE  ROCKIES  " 


THE  PLANTING  OF  THE  CHURCH 

IN  THE  VALLEY  OF  THE 

MISSISSIPPI 


BY  THE 

REV.  SAMUEL  J.  NICCOLLS,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
St.  Louis,  Mo. 


THE  PLANTING  OF  THE  CHURCH  IN  THE 
VALLEY  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI 

BY 

SAMUEL  J.  NICCOLLS,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


3fr.  Chairman,  Fathers,  and  Brethi'en : — 

The  subject  assigned  me  on  this  occasion  is  one 
requiring  volumes  to  present  it  adequately,  rather  than 
a  brief  address.  It  has,  first  of  all,  a  territorial  and 
physical  magnitude  that  is  impressive.  The  Mississippi 
Valley  embraces  that  vast  area  which  lies  between  the 
Alleghenies  on  the  east,  the  Rocky  Mountains  on  the 
west,  the  Great  Lakes  on  the  north,  and  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  on  the  south.  Within  these  boundaries  lies  the\ 
largest  and  most  important  valley  in  the  world ;  that  of  i 
the  Nile,  the  Euphrates,  or  of  the  Rhine,  famous  in  his- 1 
tory,  sinks  into  insignificance  in  comparison  with  it. 
There  is  none  other  equal  to  it  in  extent,  richness  of 
soil,  and  variety  of  products  ministering  to  the  wants 
of  civilized  man.  It  contains  a  larger  area  than  all 
Europe,  and  its  natural  resources  are  practically  un- 
limited. It  has  already  become  the  world's  farm,  its 
greatest  wheat  field,  corn  field,  and  cotton  field.  Out 
of  its  inexhaustible  mines  comes  the  larger  portion  of 
the  gold,  silver,  iron,  copper,  zinc,  and  lead  that  supplies 
the  demands  of  the  world's  commerce  and  manufactures. 

55 


56  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

The  great  cities  of  the  seaboard  are  nourished  out  of  its 
material  fullness,  and  the  marts  of  the  world  look  to  it 
for  their  sup})lies.  It  is  physically  the  heart  of  the 
continent,  and  animated  as  it  now  is  with  human  life, 
its  mighty  throbs  measure  the  march  of  our  material 
progress,  and  they  are  felt  throughout  the  world. 

The  familiar  name  for  this  vast  region  is  the  West, 
and  so  dominating  is  this  title  that  we  speak  of  the 
northern  portion  as  the  Northwest,  and  the  great  south 
land  is  called  the  Southwest.  No  thoughtful  reader  of 
history,  no  observer  of  human  affairs,  can  fail  to  see 
in  this  great  valley  a  stage  prepared  for  new  and  won- 
derful manifestations  of  God's  purpose  concerning  men. 
There  are  material  as  well  as  spiritual  factors  in  the 
development  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  Our  biblical  faith 
teaches  us  that  God's  eternal  purpose  in  Christ  Jesus 
holds  all  things  and  all  events  in  its  embrace,  and  rules 
them  in  harmony  with  itself.  When  he  drew  the  lines 
of  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  traced  the  channels  of 
its  rivers,  wrought  through  long  ages  for  the  enrichment 
of  its  soil,  stored  the  treasures  of  gold,  silver,  iron,  and 
lead  in  its  hills  and  mountains,  planted  its  forests,  and 
spread  abroad  its  prairies,  it  was  with  reference  to  his 
kingdom.  No  one  who  has  studied  the  history  of  the 
settlement  of  North  America  can  have  failed  to  notice 
the  striking  order  of  events  by  which  it  came  to  be  the 
inheritance  of  the  children  of  the  Reformation ;  and  so, 
a  land  of  liberty  and  gospel  institutions  instead  of  a 
Spanish  colony  poisoned  and  bliglited  by  Roman  ecclesi- 
asticism. 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  HUSSIONS  57 

Not  less  significant  were  the  events  which  led  to 
the  final  and  permanent  settlement  of  the  \yest.  In 
1682,  less  than  sixty  years  after  the  foundation  of  New 
York,  La  Salle,  in  the  name  of  the  French  king,  took 
possession  of  the  region  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  extending  eastward  as  far  as  the  head 
of  the  Ohio  and  westward  to  an  undefined  extent.  For 
nearly  one  hundred  years  the  lilies  of  France  floated  in 
undisputed  sovereignty  over  this  vast  territory.  The 
entrances  to  it  were  jealously  guarded.  There  were 
four  of  them.  One  was  through  the  great  chain  of  the 
Northern  I^akes  and  by  the  head  waters  of  the  Missis- 
sippi. The  French  and  the  Jesuits  held  the  key  to  it. 
The  second  was  through  the  well-worn  Indian  trail 
along  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Erie  and  leading  to 
the  region  now  known  as  Ohio,  but  the  war-like  Iro- 
quois were  its  custodians  and  forbade  the  advance  of  the 
emigrant.  The  third  was  down  the  Ohio  River,  but 
the  French  and  the  Jesuits  were  at  Fort  Duquesne. 
The  fourth  was  through  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi 
River,  where  the  same  watchful  guards  kept  out  all  who 
were  not  in  sympathy  with  France  and  Roman  ecclesi- 
asticism.  But  while  France  held  the  territory  she  did 
not  occupy  it.  Her  representatives  kept  watch  over  it 
until  the  chosen  people  should  enter  in  and  take  pos- 
session. A  monarchy  that  could  devise  and  execute  the 
massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew's  Day,  and  kill  or  drive 
into  exile  thousands  of  its  best  subjects  for  worshiping 
God  according  to  the  dictates  of  their  own  consciences, 
was  not  the  one  destined  to  rule  the  New  World. 


58  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

Most  significant  is  the  way  by  which  the  West  was 
entered  by  the  English-speaking  and  Protestant  people. 
It  was  througli  the  heart  of  the  AHeghenies  into  the 
region  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee ;  and  the  men  who 
dared  to  go  that  perilous  way  were  the  Scotch-Irish 
Presbyterians. 

President  Roosevelt,  in  his  history  of  the  Winning 
of  the  West,  writes  thus  :  "  The  backwoodsmen  were 
Americans  by  birth  and  parentage  and  of  a  mixed  race, 
but  the  dominant  strain  in  their  blood  was  that  of  the 
Presbyterian  Irish,  the  Scotch-Irish,  as  they  were  often 
called.  Full  credit  has  been  awarded  the  Roundhead 
and  the  Cavalier  for  their  leadership  in  our  history,  but 
it  is  doubtful  if  we  have  wholly  realized  the  importance 
of  the  part  played  by  that  stern  and  virile  people,  the 
Irish,  whose  preachers  taught  the  creed  of  Calvin  and 
Knox.  They  formed  the  kernel  of  the  distinctively  and 
intensely  American  stock  who  were  the  pioneers  of  our 
people  in  the  march  westward,  the  vanguard  of  the 
army  of  fighting  settlers  who  with  axe  and  rifle  won 
their  way  from  the  AUeghenies  to  the  Rio  Grande  and 
the  Pacific.  The  West  was  won  by  those  who  have 
been  rightly  called  the  Roundheads  of  the  South,  the 
same  men  who  before  any  others  declared  for  American 
independence.  The  creed  of  the  backwoodsmen,  so  far 
as  they  had  any,  was  Presbyterian." 

All  this  meant  much  for  the  work  of  home  missions 
and  the  future  of  our  country.  In  1802,  when  the  Home 
Mission  Committee  was  organized,  Kentucky  had  half 
as  many  people  as  Massachusetts ;  and  Tennessee  had 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  59 

already  been  admitted  into  tlic  Union  as  a  State.  At 
tlie  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  began  a 
movement  which  has  had  in  its  far-reaching  results  a 
greater  effect  upon  the  destiny  of  the  world  than  all  the 
wars  of  Continental  Europe  for  the  past  three  hundred 
years.     It  was  the  migration  to  the  West. 

Prior  to  that  time  the  region  north  of  the  Ohio  River 
was  almost  uninhabited  by  white  people  ;  and  west  of 
the  Father  of  AYaters  stretched  a  vast  country  as  un- 
defined as  the  fabulous  realms  of  Prester  John.  Through 
various  ao-encies  the  door  to  this  region  was  thrown 
0})en.  In  1803  the  French  flag  was  lowered  and  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  lifted  in  its  stead  on  the  western  banks 
of  the  Mississippi.  At  once  a  great  movement  of  the 
people  Avestward  began.  Its  advance  was  like  a  flood 
of  inundating  waters,  carrying  with  it  things  good  and 
bad.  It  grew  and  gathered,  not  only  from  the  eastern 
States,  but  also  from  the  lands  beyond  the  ocean.  There 
came  Irishmen,  Scotchmen,  Englishmen,  French,  Swedes, 
Norwegians,  Hungarians,  Germans,  Italians,  Holland- 
ers, Russians,  a  mighty  and  mixed  multitude  in  a  cease- 
less and  ever-enlarging  procession,  to  build  their  homes 
in  the  fertile  West.  It  was  a  movement  as  big  with 
destiny  to  this  land  of  ours  as  was  that  of  the  Goths 
and  Vandals  to  Italy  and  the  old  Roman  Empire. 

It  was  at  the  beginning  of  this  movement  that  our 
Board  of  Home  Missions  was  organized.  True,  prior 
to  1802,  heroic  and  self-denying  missionaries  like 
IMcMillan  and  Beatty  had  gone  to  the  frontiers  to  look 
after  "  the  lost  sheep  in  the  wilderness."     Presbyteries 


60  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

and  synods  had  carefully  and  prayerfully  considered 
the  needs  of  the  new  settlements,  but  now,  as  moved  by 
some  proj)hetic  instinct,  the  Avhole  Church,  through  the 
General  Assembly,  pledged  itself  to  this  work  ;  and, 
God  be  praised,  from  that  day  until  now  there  has  been 
no  backward  step  or  faltering  in  the  work  then  under- 
taken. 

The  organization  then  made  has  grown  from  strength 
to  strength,  and  in  variety  of  functions,  so  that  now  it 
manifests  itself  not  only  in  home  missions,  but  in  the 
work  for  the  Freedmen,  Sabbath  schools,  the  Board  of 
Publication,  the  Board  of  Church  Erection,  the  Board 
of  Aid  for  Schools  and  Colleges,  and  the  Woman's 
Board  of  Home  Missions.  That  such  a  work  was 
demanded  by  the  West  is  so  evident  that  no  one  will 
question  its  necessity,  but  not  all,  even  at  this  late  date, 
realize  its  supreme  importance,  and  how  much  it  has 
had  to  do  with  the  best  development  of  our  country 
and  the  evangelization  of  the  world. 

Much  has  been  said  concerning  the  perils  that  threat- 
ened our  country  during  the  dark  days  of  the  Civil 
War.  We  honor  the  men  who  in  the  hour  of  their 
country's  peril  hazarded  their  lives  in  its  defense ;  and 
we  build  monuments  to  those  who  died  on  the  battle- 
field. But  no  less  deserving  of  honor  are  those  mis- 
sionaries of  our  own  branch  of  the  Church,  and  of 
others,  also,  who  went  forth  in  the  name  of  Christ  and 
under  his  banner  to  meet  the  perils  that  threatened 
our  country  and  our  civilization  during  the  settlement 
of  the  West.     The  early  settlers  were  a  brave,  hardy, 


CENTENNIAL  OF  HOME  MISSIONS  61 

and  courageous  people.  Too  mucli  cannot  be  said  in 
praise  of  certain  traits  of  their  character ;  the  wild  free- 
dom -which  they  enjoyed  and  the  primitive  conditions 
of  life  in  which  they  lived  tended  to  make  them  sturdy, 
independent,  and  self-reliant.  But  that  same  freedom 
also  led  to  lawlessness.  The  same  evil  results  appeared 
which  ever  manifest  themselves  in  sinful  human  nature 
when  man  is  left  unrestrained  to  do  that  which  seems 
good  in  his  own  eyes.  The  restraints  of  society  under 
the  influence  of  Christianity  w^ere  not  felt  by  them. 
The  visible  Church  with  its  ordinances  and  testimony 
for  God  was  not  there  to  speak  to  the  conscience.  As 
a  consequence  many  of  the  frontier  settlements  were 
characterized  by  lawlessness,  vice,  and  crime.  Wicked- 
ness became  bold  and  boastful  and  infidelity  spread  with 
startling  rapidity.  In  the  isolated  settlements,  under  the 
dominion  of  ignorance,  vice,  and  irreligion,  the  people 
were  fast  sinking  into  barbarism.  This  was  true  not 
only  of  the  rural  settlements,  but  also  of  the  towns. 
Trace  back  the  history  of  the  great  cities  of  the  West, 
the  equal  to-day  of  any  on  our  Continent  in  intelligence 
and  morality,  and  you  will  come  to  a  chaotic  period 
when  lawdessness  and  vice  in  every  form  abounded, 
Avhen  violence  was  prevalent,  w^hen  manners  w-ere 
coarse,  and  speech  indecent  and  profane.  Good  men 
were  filled  with  dismay  by  what  they  saw ;  some  yielded 
to  the  evil  contagion  ;  some  were  vexed  in  their  souls, 
but,  like  Lot  in  Sodom,  remained  quiet ;  and  some, 
girding  themselves  for  the  conflict,  said,  "  A  change  must 
be  made  or  society  will  perish." 


02  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

The  danger  was  real  and  widespread.  The  incoming 
of  a  certain  class  of  emigrants  from  abroad  only  added 
to  it.  So  great  was  the  peril  that  earnest  patriots  and 
Ciiristians  of  seventy-five  years  ago  were  filled  with 
consternation  over  the  conditions.  And  what  was  it 
that  saved  the  civilization  of  the  West  ?  AVhat  arrested 
the  downward  tendency  and  made  the  progress  of  that 
region  the  wonder  of  the  world  ?  Doubtless  certain 
physical  agencies  wrought  together  to  this  end.  Steam- 
boats, railroads,  and  the  tclegra])h  conquered  time  and 
space  and  nullified  the  baneful  eifects  of  isolation.  They 
helped  to  make  the  West  feel  the  power  of  a  conmnon 
life,  and  brought  it  into  direct  sympathy  Avith  the  civili- 
zation of  the  East.  But  more  powerful  than  anything 
else  w^as  the  work  of  the  Church  through  its  various 
fmissionary  agencies.  The  true  winning  of  the  West 
was  accomplished  by  the  missionaries  of  the  cross  of 
Christ.  Will  any  one  dare  say  that  the  Valley  of 
the  Mississippi  would  be  what  it  is  to-day,  in  all  that 
gives  it  true  greatness,  honor,  and  power,  without  the 
gospel  of  Christ  ?  The  condition  of  the  unevangel- 
ized  portions  of  our  country  gives  the  lie  to  such  an 
assertion.  It  is  too  late  in  the  day  to  question  the  power 
of  the  gospel  to  civilize  men,  to  restrain  vice,  to  purify 
public  morals,  to  promote  intelligence,  to  give  peace  and 
order  in  society,  and  to  reproduce  in  man  the  lost  image 
of  God.  With  the  eloquent  Webster  we  can  say, 
"  Where  have  the  waters  of  civilization  sprung  up  save 
in  the  steps  of  the  Christian  ministry  ?" 

The  men  who  went  forth  to  plant  the  Church  in  the 


CENTENNIAL  OF  HOME  3IJSSI0NS  63 

Valley  of  the  Mississippi  are  worthy  of  reniembranee 
on  an  occasion  like  this.  They  were  men,  for  the  most 
part,  of  superior  qualifications  for  their  work.  It  is  true 
that  there  has  been  a  great  variety  of  missionary  labor- 
ers in  the  West.  Some  were  zealous  but  uucducatetl, 
and  often  kindled  the  fires  of  religious  fanaticism  ;  some 
had  only  a  rudimentary  knowledge  of  the  gospel,  but 
were  animated  by  a  love  for  Christ  and  the  souls  of  men 
that  served  to  make  them  successful  evangelists.  But 
it  can  be  said  of  the  missionaries  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  that,  joined  with  their  love  for  Christ,  ■\\as  a 
thorough  mental  training  and  equipment  ^vhich  fitted 
them  for  special  and  important  service  in  the  upbuilding 
of  the  West.  In  the  early  part  of  the  last  century  they, 
more  than  any  others,  were  the  Christian  instructors  of 
the  people.  They  were  graduates  of  the  best  eastern 
colleges,  and  had  received  careful  instruction  in  theology. 
The  policy  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  requiring 
an  educated  ministry  has  an  ample  justification  in  the 
work  done  by  her  home  missionaries  in  the  West. 

Take  a  single  case  as  an  illustration  :  In  the  early 
part  of  the  last  century  there  was  a  graduate  of  Yale 
College  under  Timothy  Dwight  who  studied  theology 
at  Princeton.  His  first  charge  was  an  important  one  in 
the  State  of  New  York,  and  from  it  he  was  invited  to 
the  old  Allen  Street  Church  in  the  city  of  New  York, 
then  in  the  meridian  of  its  power.  His  ministrations 
were  most  acceptable,  and  gracious  revivals  attended 
his  preaching,  but  his  thoughts  were  ever  turning  toward 
the  great  field  in  the  West.     He  heard  the  cry  of  its 


64  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

destitution  as  did  Paul  the  v^oice  of  the  man  of  Mace- 
donia. One  day  Dr.  Peters,  Secretary  of  Home  Mis- 
sions, came  to  him  with  a  call  that  was  backed  by  the 
wants  of  thousands  of  miners  and  merchants  who  were 
living  on  the  shores  of  the  Upper  Mississippi,  without 
a  church  or  a  school.  He  promptly  responded,  "  I  go, 
sir,"  rejoicing  like  the  great  apostle  to  find  an  opportu- 
nity where  he  could  build  on  no  other  man's  foundation. 
With  a  promptness  and  boldness  that  ever  characterized 
his  actions  he  immediately  set  forth  on  his  journey  to  his 
distant  field  of  labor.  The  little  surplus  that  remained, 
after  purchasing  a  slender  outfit  for  himself  and  family, 
he  gave  to  the  American  Tract  Society  as  a  parting  gift. 
Twenty-seven  days  after  leaving  New  York  he  landed 
in  Galena,  and  the  next  day  being  the  Sabbath,  he 
gathered  a  congregation  in  a  large  dining  room  and  there 
began  the  first  preaching  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  in 
northern  Illinois.  His  field  of  labor  was  a  typical 
western  one  of  that  date.  Galena  had  a  miscellaneous 
population  gathered  from  Europe  and  the  eastern  States. 
Some  few  may  have  been  professors  of  religion  in  their 
old  homes,  but  they  were  "  blighted  and  famished  Chris- 
tians." The  vast  majority  were  utterly  irreligious. 
"Sabbath-breaking,  profanity,  and  gambling  had  ob- 
tained an  alarming  and  sickening  prevalence."  There 
was  no  church  of  any  denomination,  Protestant  or 
Catholic,  within  two  hundred  miles.  The  great  North- 
west was  still  occupied  by  Indians  ;  the  war-trail  of 
Black  Hawk  had  not  disappeared  from  northern  Illi- 
nois ;  the  settlement  at  Chicago  had  not  yet  commenced  ; 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  65 

another  great  missionary,  Jeremiah  Porter,  had  not  as 
yet  come  to  the  garrison  at  Fort  Dearborn.  He  was 
alone  in  the  wide  field.  He  wrote,  "  Here  is  opened  a 
great  and  eifectnal  door  to  preach  the  gospel." 

But  there  were  many  adversaries.  A  less  resolute 
man  would  have  left  the  field,  but  his  fiiith  never  fid- 
tered.  Coming  one  day  to  a  bluflp  that  commanded  a 
wide  view  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  he  alighted  from 
his  horse,  and,  uncovering  his  head,  lifted  his  hand  to 
heaven  and  said,  ''  I  take  possession  of  this  land  for 
Christ."  The  act  of  La  Salle  in  raisino;  the  French  flao- 
in  1682  and  taking  possession  of  the  valley  in  the  name 
of  the  French  king  was  not  so  significant.  This  bold 
pioneer  of  the  cross,  burning  with  the  spirit  of  conquest, 
had  a  royal  mandate  from  his  King  for  his  act.  Nor 
was  it  an  idle  or  enthusiastic  boast  on  the  part  of  the 
missionary.  He  remained  to  hold  the  ground,  and  with 
unfaltering  faith  and  enduring  patience  he  faced  the 
difficulties  before  him.  It  took  three  years  of  toil  before 
he  could  organize  a  church  of  six  members,  and  of  the 
original  six  only  two  were  from  Galena ;  the  others 
resided  outside,  from  five  to  forty  miles  distant.  He 
went  abroad  to  every  settlement  and  village  Avithin  a 
radius  of  one  hundred  miles  preaching  the  word.  But 
these  years  of  toilsome  plowing  and  sowing  were  fol- 
lowed by  a  bounteous  harvest.  Revival  succeeded  re- 
vival, during  which  two  hundred  and  fifty-six  persons 
were  added  to  Christ  in  his  church.  He  did  not  despise 
the  day  of  small  things,  but  counted  himself  honored 
in  being  permitted  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  Christian 

5 


66  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

civilization.  To  him  the  school  was  the  ally  of  the 
Church,  and  education  the  handmaid  to  religion.  In 
faith  and  prayer  he  laid  the  foundations  of  three  colleges 
and  two  ladies'  seminaries,  which  exist  to-day,  monu- 
ments to  his  foresight,  his  wisdom,  and  his  enlightened 
public  spirit.  Associated  with  him  in  his  labors  and 
trials  was  his  accomplished  wife,  a  typical  western 
missionary's  wife,  educated,  refined,  gentle,  patient, 
heroic.  Their  three  children  died  in  infancy,  but  in 
their  broad  and  practical  charity  they  made  their  house 
an  orphans'  home.  They  reared  and  educated  tAvelve 
orphan  children,  all  of  whom  became  useful  and  hon- 
ored members  of  society.  In  addition,  they  helped  to 
educate  nine  young  men  for  the  ministry,  and  this  was 
done  on  a  salary  of  $600  a  year.  They  studied  economy 
that  they  might  be  the  helpers  of  otliers.  A  pioneer 
home  missionary  bending  all  his  energies  to  develop  his 
own  field,  he  was  also  the  friend  of  foreign  missions, 
and  aided  his  people  in  contributing  to  that  cause.  In 
his  old  age,  iu  his  seventy-fourth  year,  he  was  an  active 
and  efficient  superintendent  of  home  missions  in  the 
Northwest,  still  abundant  in  labors.  He  did  not  stop 
to  rest  until  his  Lord  called  him  to  his  eternal  home 
and  reward  November  8th,  1868. 

Such  is  the  mere  outline  of  the  life  and  labors  of  a 
western  missionary,  Aratus  Kent.  He  has  left  for  him- 
self a  monument  more  enduring  than  brass  or  marble. 
He  still  lives  in  the  widespread  community  upon  which 
he  left  the  impress  of  his  self-sacrificing  life.  But 
his  name  is  only  one  of  scores  and  hundreds  equally 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  67 

wortliy  of  remembrance  and  honor  that  coukl  be  men- 
tioned. 

Ohio  can  tell  of  James  Hoge  and  David  Badger,  and 
their  apostolic  zeal ;  Kentucky,  of  David  Rice  and 
Cleland ;  Tennessee,  of  Doak,  the  educator,  and  of 
Blackburn  and  Nelson  Mdio,  as  burning  and  shining 
lights,  went  through  state  after  state,  and  from  settle- 
ment to  settlement,  kindling  the  fire  of  spiritual  revival 
until  it  swept  like  a  mighty  conflagration  over  the  land. 
Indiana  can  tell  of  Father  Dickey ;  and  Missouri,  of 
Giddings,  Cochran,  and  Finley ;  Kansas,  of  the  great 
home  missionary  leader,  Timothy  Hill,  the  father  of 
Avestern  synods,  who  has  left  an  enduring  monument 
for  himself  in  the  presbyteries  and  churches  of  three 
States. 

But  time  fails  me  to  repeat  the  names  of  those  old 
worthies  ;  they  shine  as  stars  of  the  first  magnitude  in 
the  s])iritual  heavens.  But  clustering  around  them  are 
others  less  conspicuous  in  service,  but  equally  faithful 
in  Avork  and  testimony,  for  whom  earth  had  nothing 
great  enough  to  reward  them.  To  them  belongs  the 
high  honor  of  having  laid  the  foundations  upon  which 
others  built.  They  were  the  brave  leaders  who  carried 
the  banners  of  the  gospel  to  the  frontiers,  took  possession 
of  the  land,  and  held  it  for  liberty,  for  Christian  civili- 
zation, and  for  Christ.  We  do  not  properly  estimate 
the  difficulties  of  their  task  and  the  sublime  heroism 
Avith  AA'hich  it  AA'as  accomplished,  if  avc  think  only  or 
chiefly  of  the  physical  priA'ations  or  of  the  dnngers 
which  they  faced  in  the  Avilderness.     It  is  true  that  they 


68  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

lived  on  most  meager  salaries,  and  suffered  the  hard- 
ships of  early  western  life,  but  so  did  othc^rs.  It  is 
true  that  they  were  in  perils  in  the  wilderness,  and 
heard  the  war-cries  of  savage  foes,  but  so  did  others. 
We  cannot  claim  pre-eminence  for  them  on  account  of 
these  things,  save  as  they  endured  them,  not  for  per- 
sonal gain,  but  for  Christ's  sake,  and  that  they  might 
save  their  fellow-men.  They  went  forth  not  to  conquer 
the  wilderness,  but  to  fight  the  battles  of  faith,  to  face 
the  demons  of  darkness,  ignorance,  superstition,  vice, 
unbelief,  and  irreligion,  more  terrible  and  harder  to 
overcome  than  the  wild  beasts  or  hostile  savages  of  the 
primeval  forests.  It  is  difficult  for  us,  enjoying  as  we 
do  the  benefits  of  a  Christian  civilization,  to  realize  the 
conditions  of  society  that  confronted  them,  and  how 
hard  it  was  to  keep  from  despair  in  view  of  the  obsta- 
cles before  them.  That  they  won  at  all  is  due  to  the 
power  and  grace  of  God,  but  none  the  less  is  honor  due 
his  faithful  servants  who  believed  in  the  power  of  his 
gospel  to  overcome  all  evil  and  to  save  men.  In  their 
preaching  they  used  the  terms  of  the  old  theology 
because  these  terms  expressed  their  convictions.  They 
were  not  to  them  worn-out  or  exaggerated  phrases. 
They  saw  sin,  man's  ruin,  his  need,  and  the  greatness 
and  sovereignty  of  grace  with  such  clearness  and  full- 
ness of  vision  that  the  old  terms  alone  could  express 
what  they  saw.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  in  many  cases 
defective  and  not  clearer  vision  is  the  reason  for  the 
modern  demand  for  new  terms ;  and  that  what  is  really 
wanted  is  not  the  old  faith  in  new  phrases,  but  a  new 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  69 

one  in  its  own  appro})riato  speech.  Certain  it  is  that 
these  old  conquering  missionaries  were  not  anxious  to 
make  the  gospel  acceptable  to  the  people  by  preaching 
it  in  terms  agreeable  to  the  natural  man. 

They  came  to  godless  men  with  a  message  from  God, 
calling  them  to  repentance  and  faith.  They  preached 
the  utter  ruin  of  human  nature  through  sin  ;  they  set 
forth  in  plainest  terms  the  immutable  law  of  God,  and 
summoned  their  hearers  to  its  bar  to  hear  the  dreadful 
condemnation  that  rested  upon  them.  They  made  the 
thunder  of  the  violated  law  to  resound  in  their  con- 
sciences until  they  cried  out  in  anguish  of  soul :  then 
they  pointed  them  to  the  cross,  the  only  refuge  and  hid- 
ing place  for  the  guilty,  a  sweet  and  gracious  manifesta- 
tion of  divine  love.  Say  what  we  will  about  it  in  theseN 
days  when  a  rose-scented  and  cultured  liberalism  would  ' 
persuade  us  that  sin  is  only  a  temporary  defect  and  hell  but 
an  ugly  dream,  this  was  the  preaching  that,  under  God,] 
saved  and  regenerated  society  in  the  West.  These  mis- 
sionaries were,  first  of  all,  preachers  of  the  word,  am- 
bassadors for  Christ  beseeching  men  to  be  reconciled  to 
God,  but  they  were  also  men  of  enlarged  public  spirit, 
concerned  for  the  establishment  of  a  Christian  civiliza- 
tion. The  doctrines  which  they  preached  were  those 
which  ever  tend  most  powerfully  to  the  establishment 
of  pure  morality,  justice,  and  liberty  among  men.  Their 
Presbyterianism  represented  the  very  spirit  of  free  insti- 
tutions and  of  stable  self-government ;  and  especially 
were  they  concerned  for  the  sacred  cause  of  education 
on  the  basis  of  Christianity.     They  planted  the  school 


70  CENTENNIAL  OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

alongside  the  church.  It  is  putlictic  to  read  of  their 
tireless  and  self-sacrificing  struggles  to  secure  academies 
and  colleges  for  the  higher  education  of  the  people. 
With  a  statesmanlike  foresight  for  the  future  they  laid 
in  prayer  and  faith  the  foundations  of  institutions  that 
have  become  leading  educational  centers  in  the  AVest. 
There  is  not  a  college  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  over 
fifty  years  old  that  does  not  owe  its  origin,  either  directly 
or  indirectly,  to  the  labors  of  the  missionaries. 

But  how  can  we  adequately  measure  the  results  of 
their  labors  during  the  last  one  hundred  years?  We 
can  point  to  communities  that  once  were  scenes  of 
violence  and  crime,  where  vice  flaunted  itself  with  un- 
blushing effrontery,  now  fair  and  peaceful,  adorned  by 
the  homes  of  God-fearing,  intelligent,  and  law-abiding 
people,  and  confidently  say,  "  that  but  for  the  labors 
of  the  home  missionaries,  who  brought  to  them  the 
purifying  and  exalting  message  of  the  gospel,  they 
would  have  remained  in  their  degradation."  We  can 
name  schools  and  colleges  and  seminaries  by  the  scores 
and  hundreds  whose  early  annals  record  the  nanjes  of 
our  missionaries  as  among  their  founders.  Of  the  four 
thousand  churches  of  our  order  in  the  Mississipjii 
Valley,  we  can  say  that  90  per  cent  of  them  were 
organized  by  our  missionaries  or  supported  in  their 
infancy  by  the  funds  of  the  Board.  We  can  say  that 
through  this  early  planting  we  have  now  a  harvest  of 
nearly  500,000  communicants,  almost  one-half  of  the 
present  membership  of  the  whole  Church,  in  the  Valley 
of  the  Mississippi.     The  churches  represented  by  them 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  71 

contributed  last  year  $352,000  to  the  Board  of  Homo 
Missions  and  |209,000  to  Foreign  Missions.  l^ut 
this  does  not  tell  all.  There  are  some  results  tliat 
can  be  tabulated  in  figures,  measured  by  dollars,  or  by 
pounds  or  lineal  measure ;  but  not  so  M'ith  s])iritual 
forces  and  results.  Even  for  that  most  spiritual  of  all 
material  forces,  electricity,  a  new  terminology  had  to  be 
invented,  and  we  measure  it  by  ohms  and  amperes. 

But  the  terms  have  not  yet  been  invented  that  will 
measure  the  power  of  the  spirit  of  missions  in  its  results 
upon  society  and  the  souls  of  men.  We  can  see  enough 
that  is  permanent,  tangible,  visible,  and  useful  to  justify 
the  work  of  home  missions,  and  to  lead  us  to  honor 
the  men  and  women  who  were  engaged  in  it. 

To  serve  society  in  any  way  that  advances  its  mate- 
rial interests  is  praiseworthy,  but  to  serve  it  in  such  a 
way  as  to  promote  its  moral  and  spiritual  advancement 
is  to  render  the  highest  possible  service,  and  to  confer 
enduring  honor  npon  him  who  does  it.  There  are 
many  methods  by  which  this  can  be  done ;  but  none 
are  more  directly  engaged  in  it  than  those  who  as  mis- 
sionaries bear  the  tidings  of  God's  love  to  sinful  men. 
Their  work  extends  not  only  to  the  individuals  whom 
they  meet  personally,  but  it  reaches  on  through  the 
coming  generations  and  breaks  through  the  boundaries 
of  time  and  space.     All  honor  to  them  ! 

Our  country  holds  in  grateful  remembrance  the  men 
who  in  the  hour  of  her  peril  went  to  the  front,  hazard- 
ing their  lives  for  what  they  believed  to  be  humanity's 
great  cause ;  she  builds  monuments  in  memory  of  those 


72  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

who  fell  in  the  great  conflict,  and  places  upon  the  pen- 
sion roll  the  enfeebled  survivors  of  the  Grand  Army. 
Not  less  worthy  of  remembrance  are  those  who  went  to 
the  frontiers  to  engage  in  a  struggle  that  was  fraught 
with  life  or  death  to  our  country.  They  were  as  patri- 
otic as  they  were  Christian.  For  the  most  part  they 
lived  in  obscurity  and  died  in  poverty.  The  country 
builds  no  monuments  to  their  memory,  nor  do  they  need 
any  beyond  those  that  now  stand  to  their  honor.  The 
countless  churches,  whose  spires  point  to  the  heavens, 
from  the  Alleghenies  to  the  Rocky  Mountains ;  the 
schools  and  colleges  that  shine  throughout  the  land  like 
stars  in  the  sky  of  night;  the  redeemed  communities 
that  rejoice  in  the  blessings  of  the  gospel — these  are 
their  monuments,  these  the  symbols  of  their  reward. 
Their  names  are  on  the  pension  rolls  of  the  great  King 
who  ever  crowns  his  faithful  soldiers,  and  who  never 
fails  to  reward,  in  the  abundance  of  his  grace,  the  low- 
liest service  done  in  his  name. 

The  history  of  home  missions  in  the  West  readily 
divides  itself  into  three  periods.  The  first  is  from  the 
beginning  of  the  last  century  to  the  year  1838.  That 
was  a  time  of  experiment,  of  organization,  and  of  rapid 
growth.  The  various  independent  home  missionary 
societies  were  brought  together  into  one,  with  a  national 
scope  and  with  increased  power.  The  growth  of  the 
Church  in  the  West  was  rapid.  Churches  were  multi- 
plied in  every  direction,  and  the  spirit  of  religious  zeal 
was  strong  and  active.  It  was  a  time  of  great  oppor- 
tunity for  our  Church ;  the  empire  of  the  West  was 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  73 

within  our  grasp  ;  alas,  that  wc  failed  in  the  supreme 
hour. 

The  second  period  is  from  1838  to  1870.  It  was  a 
time  of  divisions,  with  its  strifes  and  losses.  "Old 
School "  and  "  New  School,"  "  Northern  "  and  "  South- 
ern," are  names  that  belong  to  that  period.  Home  mis- 
sion work  was  arrested  by  ecclesiastical  strife,  and  the 
strength  of  the  Church  was  spent  in  building  up  rival 
organizations  in  the  same  community.  While  we  halted 
to  impress  upon  our  people  the  supreme  importance  of 
certain  distinctions  in  theology,  other  denominations 
outran  us.  There  are  some  very  salutary  lessons  to  be 
learned  from  this  sad  period  of  alienation  and  division, 
lessons  of  warning  as  well  as  instruction. 

The  third  period  began  with  the  reunion  of  1870. 
The  reunited  Church  addressed  itself  at  once  with  in- 
creased vigor  to  the  evangelization  of  the  West. 
Another  great  opportunity  had  come.  The  close  of  the 
Civil  War,  establishing  our  national  unity,  saw  the  com- 
mencement of  a  new  emigration  to  the  West,  and  of  a 
marvelous  development  of  its  resources.  There  were 
two  great  and  providential  leaders  in  the  Board  of  Home 
Missions  at  that  time,  Henry  Kendall  and  Cyrus  Dick- 
son :  one,  cool,  resolute,  and  statesmanlike  in  his  plans 
of  action  ;  the  other,  warm  hearted,  full  of  fiery  zeal  and 
impassioned  devotion  to  the  cause.  One  was  the  com- 
plement of  the  other  in  the  sphere  of  leadership.  One 
was  the  Grant,  tlie  other  the  Sherman,  of  the  great  cam- 
paign in  the  West.  One  was  like  Moses,  sagacious, 
determined,  and  slow  of  speech  ;  the  other,  as  Aaron, 


74  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

eloquent  of  tono;ne.  Wlmt  was  done  under  their  leader- 
sliip  is  so  inauitest  in  its  greatness  and  power  tliat  there 
is  no  need  to  dwell  upon  it.  They  sowed  liberally,  and 
the  abundant  harvest  whieh  the  Chureh  is  now  reaping 
justifies  what  they  did.  The  period  whieh  they  inaugu- 
rated has  not  yet  closed.  The  work  planned  on  so 
broad  a  scale  by  them  has  fallen  into  other  and,  we 
believe,  most  capable  hands  for  its  administration.  But 
it  remains  for  the  Church  to  realize  more  fully  and 
clearly  the  magnitude  of  the  unfinished  work.  Never 
was  there  a  time  when  there  were  more  urgent  reasons 
that  it  should  be  carried  on  aggressively,  courageously, 
and  with  abounding  liberality  than  now. 

It  is  true  that  the  old  conditions  have  changed.  The 
frontiers,  of  which  so  much  has  been  said,  are  gone,  but 
the  need  for  evangelization  has  not  disappeared.  On 
account  of  the  rapid  increase  of  population  it  is  greater 
than  ever.  The  vast  field  of  the  West  has  been  inclosed, 
and  the  work  lies  at  our  door.  Our  cities  and  towns, 
growing  with  amazing  rapidity,  are  as  truly  mission 
fields  as  were  the  old-time  frontiers,  and  there  are  un- 
evangelized  regions  with  a  popidation  tenfold  greater 
than  those  that  enlisted  the  labors  and  prayers  of  the 
Church  fifty  years  ago.  It  would  be  easy,  did  time 
permit,  to  mention  scores  and  hundreds  of  localities 
where  there  are  open  doors  to  preach  the  gospel,  but 
which  have  not  been  entered  because  missionaries  could 
not  be  sent.  I  could  readily  speak  of  the  vast  tide  of 
foreign  emigration  pouring  into  this  country,  enough  at 
the  present  rate  to  make  a  city  the  size  of  New  York  in 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  75 

a   jxn-iod  of  five  years,  and   the  larger  ]iortion  of  this 
emigration  finds  its  way  to  the  West. 

But  let  us  turn  from  this  and  consider  some  of  the 
reasons  that  should  lead  us  to  a  profouuder  interest  in 
the  work  of  home  evangelization.  In  this  great  com- 
niercial  metropolis  of  our  country,  where  men  of  enter- 
prise are  on  the  alert  to  do  all  that  will  promote  the 
interest  of  commerce  and  trade,  home  missions  ought 
to  have  special  consideration  on  the  ground  of  material 
advantages  resulting  from  it,  even  if  there  were  none 
other.  It  can  readily  be  demonstrated  that  the  gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ  in  its  practical  outworking  in  society 
encourages  thrift  and  industry,  and  creates  the  highest 
order  of  civilization.  Every  great  business  house  in 
this  city  can  give  the  diiference  between  the  commercial 
rating  of  an  evangelized  and  an  unevangelized  com- 
munity. Also  it  would  be  easy  to  bring  forAvard  the 
reasons  that  should  lead  every  American  citizen,  mIio 
cares  for  the  welfare  of  his  country,  to  take  a  profound 
interest  in  this  work.  Political  economy  never  found  a 
better  rule  for  securing  the  public  welfare  than  that 
one  given  by  the  inspired  law-giver  of  Israel,  which  is 
the  ancient  charter  of  home  missions :  "  Set  your 
heart  unto  all  the  words  which  I  testify  among  you  this 
day,  ...  all  the  words  of  this  law.  For  it  is  not  a  vain 
thing  for  you ;  because  it  is  your  life  :  and  through  this 
thing  ye  shall  prolong  your  days  in  the  land."  It  re- 
quires no  pro])hetic  inspiration  to  affirm  without  a 
doubt  that  the  life  and  glory  of  our  nation  depend 
entirely  upon  the  continuance  and  spread  of  the  gospel 


76  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

among  our  people.  That  gospel  gave  us  our  civiliza- 
tion and  our  free  institutions,  and  it"  the  day  should  ever 
corae  when  it  is  no  longer  regarded  by  us,  on  that  day 
our  doom  will  be  sealed  :  however  brilliant  the  first 
pages  of  our  history,  the  last  will  be  the  saddest  in  the 
annals  of  time,  for  they  will  not  only  register  the  judg- 
ments of  God  upon  a  peo})le  who  knew  not  the  day  of 
their  visitation,  but  they  will  also  record  the  final  over- 
throw of  the  best  hopes  of  men. 

But  there  are  higher  and  more  urgent  reasons  for  the 
prosecution  of  the  work  of  home  missions.  The  first 
is  the  absolute  need  for  it.  That  gospel,  in  which  you 
and  I  believe  and  on  which  we  base  our  hopes  of  eternal 
life,  comes  to  us  with  the  assertion  of  a  most  solemn 
fact.  It  is  that  all  men,  cultured  or  uncultured,  are 
under  the  power  of  sin,  and  unless  saved  by  divine  grace 
are  certain  to  be  lost  eternally  in  the  misery  and  shame 
of  sin.  From  this  condition  there  is  no  escape  except 
by  the  way  of  God's  providing,  which  is  through  Jesus 
Christ.  The  wretched  and  hopeless  condition  of  men 
without  the  gospel  is  revealed  in  part  by  what  can  be 
seen  in  our  own  land.  There  are  dark  places,  hideous 
sores  on  the  public  body,  localities  where  vice  reigns, 
and  where  as  a  consequence  human  nature  is  stripped 
of  all  its  fairness.  But  it  is  to  be  feared  that  this  sad 
fact  of  man's  utter  ruin  is  not  clearly  realized  by  mul- 
titudes who  call  themselves  Christians.  There  is  a 
widely  prevalent  skepticism  concerning  tlie  condition  of 
men  without  faith  in  Christ,  which  paralyzes  missionary 
effort  and  leads  many  to  justify  their  indifference  con- 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  77 

ccrning  the  religious  instruction  of  otliers.  It  was  this 
urgent  need  that  called  the  Son  of  God  from  heaven  to 
earth.  "  The  Son  of  man  came  to  seek  and  to  save  that 
which  was  lost."  It  was  the  conviction  that  men  were 
})erishing  in  sin,  and  that  there  was  no  other  deliverer 
for  them  than  through  Christ,  that  led  the  apostles  forth 
on  their  glorious  errand,  and  gave  such  earnestness  and 
power  to  their  preaching.  And  this  same  conviction 
must  take  hold  of  our  hearts,  fathers  and  brethren,  if 
we  Avould  have  a  profound  and  heartfelt  interest  in  the 
evang-elization  of  our  land  and  of  the  world.  It  is  in 
view  of  this  need  that  the  great  and  last  command  of 
our  Lord  is  given  to  us  to  go  forth  and  preach  his 
gospel. 

A  second  reason  that  should  enlist  our  larger  coopera- 
tion is  the  greatness  and  glory  of  the  work  itself.  It  is 
not  anything  common  or  unimportant  that  it  calls  us  to 
do.  It  has  indeed  lower  and  temporal  aims ;  it  pro- 
poses to  reform  society,  to  help  the  poor,  to  educate  the 
ignorant,  to  refine  manners  and  customs,  to  secure  just 
laws  and  establish  liberty  and  justice — in  short,  to  help 
man  in  his  earthly  lot.  But  it  aims  at  vastly  more ;  all 
this  is  only  incidental.  It  seeks  above  all  to  carry  on 
and  complete  Christ's  Avork ;  it  calls  men  to  glory, 
honor,  and  immortality  in  the  presence  of  God.  The 
great  aim  of  mission  work  everywhere  is  to  bring  men 
into  the  fellowship  of  the  Son  of  God.  It  is  to  make 
those  who  have  been  ruined  by  sin  heirs  of  God  and 
joint-heirs  with  Jesus  Christ.  Was  there  ever  a  more 
glorious  mission  assigned  to  mortals  ?     There  are  causes 


78  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  3nSSI0NS 

that  have  enlisted  the  efforts  and  kindled  the  enthusiasm 
of  men  to  the  highest  degree.  For  national  independ- 
ence, for  human  rights,  for  the  cause  of  liberty,  men 
have  made  costly  sacrifices,  borne  hardships,  and  freely 
shed  their  blood.  But  what  are  all  these  things  when 
Aveighed  against  the  cause  in  which  the  Son  of  God 
labored  and  died,  the  cause  in  which  the  missionary 
labors  ?  To  build  a  church  in  a  destitute  neighborhood, 
to  establish  a  Sunday  school  among  the  ignorant  and 
neglected,  to  send  a  missionary  to  preach  the  gospel  in 
some  new  settlement,  may  seem  in  the  judgment  of  the 
men  of  the  world  a  small  matter  devoid  of  honor.  But 
when  it  is  seen  in  connection  with  the  great  end  Christ 
had  before  him,  the  lifting  up  of  men  into  his  eternal 
greatness,  how  unspeakably  important  and  glorious  it  is  ! 
Another  reason  that  should  lead  us  to  engage  with 
renewed  ardor  in  the  evangelization  of  our  land  is  the 
certainty  of  success.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  this 
assurance  should  be  a  chief  motive.  We  ought  to  engage 
in  it  irrespective  of  success  or  failure  because  our  Lord 
has  commanded  us.  But  the  assurance  of  success  has 
much  to  do  with  stimulating  activity.  The  Holy  Spirit 
does  not  hesitate  to  use  it,  as  it  is  written  :  "  Therefore, 
my  beloved  brethren,  be  ye  steadfast,  unmovable,  always 
abounding  in  the  work  of  the  Lord,  for  as  much  as  ye 
know  that  your  labor  is  not  in  vain  in  the  Lord."  No 
one  can  labor  enthusiastically  in  a  failing  cause.  But 
the  seal  of  success  is  upon  this  enterprise,  its  triumph  is 
guaranteed  by  the  sure  promises  of  the  Lord.  The 
history  of  the  past  hundred  years  should  encourage  us. 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  79 

To  doubt  or  to  hesitate  now,  with  the  results  before  us, 
would  be  like  doubting  the  power  of  God  to  renew  the 
face  of  the  earth  when  springtime  has  come  and  the 
seeds  are  sprouting,  the  grass  robing  the  fields,  and  the 
fragrance  of  the  blossoms  is  in  the  air.  Whether  mis- 
sion work  will  be  a  success  or  not  is  no  longer  an  open 
question  ;  the  one  question  of  supreme  importance  to 
you  and  me  is,  AVhat  part  shall  we  have  in  the  final 
triumph  when  it  comes  ?  Is  not  this  a  time  for  us  to 
reconsecrate  ourselves  to  the  great  work  which  our 
fathers  undertook,  the  evangelization  of  our  land,  and 
through  it  the  evangelization  of  the  world  ?  It  is 
often  said  in  the  interests  of  a  world-wdde  preaching  of 
the  gospel  that  "  the  light  which  shines  furthest  abroad 
is  the  one  that  shines  brightest  at  home."  But  the  con- 
verse of  the  proposition  is  equally  true ;  the  one  that 
shines  brightest  at  home  will  be  the  one  that  sends  its 
beams  furthest  abroad.  This  land  must  be  illuminated 
before  it  can  shine  in  Christ's  name  for  the  world.  To 
falter  now  in  our  work  would  be  to  proclaim  ourselves 
faithless  to  our  great  trust;  it  would  be  to  invite  defeat 
and  disaster.  Again,  in  the  providence  of  God,  a  great 
opportunity  is  before  us,  and  never  were  we  so  endowed 
for  service  as  now.  Whatever  excuses  we  might  plead 
for  failure  to  evangelize  our  land  completely,  it  can 
never  be  urged  in  these  days  that  we  had  not  the  finan- 
cial ability  to  do  it.  The  facilities  for  work  were  never 
so  excellent  as  now.  Science  aids  the  Church,  and 
modern  inventions,  by  breaking  down  the  barriers  of 
time  and  space,  have  brought  us  all  close  together.    The 


80  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

want  and  the  supply,  the  need  and  the  help,  are  close  at 
hand.  The  hour  for  action  has  come.  Blow  the  trumpet, 
servants  of  God,  and  sound  the  advance !  Let  us  lift 
up  our  war-worn  banners.  The  faith  that  inspired  our 
fathers  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  which  made  them 
courageous  in  days  of  poverty  and  weakness,  let  that 
faith  be  ours  also,  only  made  stronger  by  the  abundant 
assurances  which  God  has  given  us  to  confirm  it.  In- 
spired by  it,  let  us  go  forth,  joining  with  our  brethren 
of  every  name,  to  bring  this  fair  land  of  ours  into  sub- 
jection to  Jesus  Christ. 


"  FROM  THE  ROCKIES  TO  THE  PACIFIC  " 


HOME  MISSIONS  ON  THE  PACIFIC 
COAST 


BY   THE 

EEV.  EDGAR  P.  HILL,  D.D. 
Portland,  Oregon 


HOME  MISSIONS  ON  THE  PACIFIC  COAST 

BY  THE 

EEV.  EDGAR  P.  HILL,  D.  D. 


3Ir.  3Ioderator,  Fathers,  and  Brethren: — 

My  text  is  in  the  second  chapter  of  the  history  of 
the  city  of  St.  Louis.  It  reads  as  follows  :  "In  1832 
four  Nez  Perces  Indians  from  Oregon  came  to  this  city 
in  search  of  the  white  man's  Book."  '     The  scene  in  the 

^  These  Indians  were  not  Flat  Heads,  as  is  popularly  supposed. 
The  following  letter  from  Miss  McBeth  of  Lapwai,  Idaho,  explains 
the  situation  :  "  Some  time  after  Lewis  and  Clark  left  here  the  Nez 
Perces  iieard,  from  several  sources,  about  God,  and  very  soon  the  sun 
pole  was  set  uji  near  Walla  Walla.  They  recalled  the  upward  ges- 
tures of  Lewis  and  Clark,  saying,  '  Now  we  know  what  they  meant, 
the  sun  is  God.'  Years  passed  on  and  in  their  gi-oping  they  added 
more  ceremonies  to  their  worship,  but  still  their  hearts  were  not 
satisfied  and  their  annual  councils  were  closed  with  these  words:  '  If 
we  could  only  find  the  path  of  Lewis  and  Clark  they  would  tell  us 
the  truth  about  God  and  that  Book  the  white  man  has  from  heaven.' 
At  last  they  decided  to  go,  and  two  from  the  Kamiah  community 
were  chosen,  the  same  place  where  Lewis  and  Clark  on  their  return 
from  the  coast  had  camped  for  more  than  a  month  waiting  for  the 
snow  to  melt  off  the  mountains  so  they  could  pass  on  home.  The 
relatives  of  these  two  Kamiah  men  are  still  in  the  valley  there.  A 
third  one  was  from  a  Salmon  River  band  of  Nez  Perces.  I  have  had 
these  statements  from  perfectly  reliable  Christian  Indians,  who  well 
remember  the  going  out  of  these  men.  Their  road  led  them  through 
the  Flat  Head  country,  and  there  they  were  joined  by  a  half-and- 
half  Flat  Head  and  Nez  Perce.  These  are  the  four  who  reached 
St.  Louis.  Not  a  Nez  Perce  old  or  young  who  has  not  heard  this 
story  of  their  fathers  going  to  find  the  truth  or  light." 

83 


84  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

frontier  aiulionce  room,  when  those  red  skins  stood 
before  General  Clark,  is  Avorthy  a  panel  of  honor  at  the 
national  Cai)itol.  That  was  one  of  the  great  moments  in 
our  national  life.  It  announeed  the  beginning  of  a  new 
epoch  in  territorial  expansion.  It  brought  face  to  face 
a  disappearing  race  and  its  white  conqueror.  But  most 
thrilling,  most  pathetic  of  all,  was  its  religious  signifi- 
cance. The  dusky  strangers  had  picked  their  way 
through  trackless  forests,  over  inhospitable  plains,  past 
hostile  tribes,  to  beg  of  the  white  man  a  copy  of  that 
mysterious  Book,  Avritten  by  the  finger  of  the  Great 
Spirit.  Centuries  before  an  apostle  had  heard  the  cry 
from  afar,  "  Come  over  and  help  us,"  but  these  modern 
Macedonians,  instead  of  asking  some  one  to  come  to 
them,  had  themselves  gone  in  search  of  the  blessing. 
At  the  risk  of  their  lives  they  had  made  a  perilous  jour- 
ney of  three  thousand  miles  to  learn  of  the  white  man's 
God  and  the  white  man's  heaven. 

Dr.  Niccolls  did  not  live  in  St.  Louis  in  those  days. 
Therefore  the  visitors  were  taken  to  the  dance  houses. 
They  saw  the  altars  where  the  Great  Spirit  was  wor- 
shiped with  candles.  They  were  entertained  at  sumptu- 
ous feasts.  Then  they  turned  toward  the  West  -with 
heavy  hearts.  "  You  make  my  feet  heavy  with  burdens 
of  gifts,"  their  spokesman  said,  "and  my  moccasins  will 
grow  old  in  carrying  them,  but  the  Book  is  not  among 
them.  When  I  tell  my  poor  blind  people  in  the  big 
council  that  I  did  not  bring  the  Book,  no  word  will  be 
spoken  by  our  old  men  or  our  young  braves.  One  by 
one  they  will  rise  up  and  go  out  in  silence.     My  people 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  85 

will  (lie  ill  tlarkncss  and  they  will  go  on  the  long  path 
to  the  other  hunting-grounds." 

The  story  of  this  incident  was  circulated  through  the 
East,  and  stirred  the  Church  with  profound  emotion. 
Heroic  souls  became  eager  to  undertake  the  dangerous 
mission.  In  four  years  two  missionaries  with  their 
wives  were  on  their  way  to  the  West  with  the  white 
man's  Book. 

What  Oriental  tale  has  half  the  charm  and  romance 
that  gather  about  the  beginnings  of  missions  on  the 
Pacific  coast?  Fifty  years  ago  the  far  west  was  a 
place  of  enchantment.  The  streams  of  California 
seemed  bedded  with  gold.  Men  became  rich  in  a  day, 
while  at  the  North,  on  the  Columbia,  picturesque  John 
McLoughlin  was  holding  his  court  at  old  Fort  Van- 
couver, like  a  baron  of  the  Middle  Ages.  A  peculiar 
interest  attaches  to  the  mission  work  of  those  days  by 
reason  of  the  daring  of  the  men,  the  romantic  setting 
of  the  drama,  and  the  momentous  results  which  have 
already  come  and  are  sure  to  follow. 

First,  let  us  notice  the  work  of  our  missionaries  in 
the  Pacific  Northwest.  The  early  settlement  of  Oregon 
and  Washington  was  in  decided  contrast  to  the  move- 
ment which  resulted  in  the  building  up  of  California. 
The  Argonauts  went  out  in  search  of  gold.  The  Oregon 
pioneers  went  out  to  find  land.  The  gold  excitement 
attracted  to  California  many  adventurers  and  despera- 
does who  became  a  terror  to  the  law-abiding  element. 
The  men  who  settled  the  North  crossed  the  plains  with 
their  families  and  established  quiet  villages.    The  Califor- 


86  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

iiian  was  apt  to  be  a  man  of  loose  morals,  who  had  little 
regard  for  things  religious,  wliose  plan  was  to  make  his 
stake  and  return  to  the  East.  The  tyj^ical  Oregonian 
was  a  man  of  a  different  stamp.  He  carried  with  him 
some  books,  some  seed  wheat,  drove  a  few  head  of 
stock,  and  went  out  to  find  a  permanent  home. 

Modern  California  began  as  a  mining  camp.  The 
Oregon  and  Washington  of  to-day  have  grown  from 
the  peaceful  agricultural  settlements  of  a  half  century 
ago. 

There  is  one  name  that  stands  out  before  all  the  rest 
in  the  history  of  those  early  days.  We  love  to  tell  of 
our  hero.  We  regard  him  as  one  of  the  great  men  of 
the  nation.  His  courage,  his  far-seeing  wisdom,  his 
consecration  to  the  cause  of  his  Master,  furnish  material 
for  a  national  epic.  You  of  Massachusetts  delight  to 
tell  of  Samuel  Adams,  the  patriot.  You  of  Ohio  tell  of 
your  Garfield,  the  statesman.  You  of  Illinois  tell  of 
your  Lincoln,  the  martyr.  We,  from  the  West,  come 
to  you  with  the  name  of  one  who  was  as  patriotic  as 
Adams,  as  statesmanlike  as  Garfield,  and  who,  like 
Lincoln,  wears  the  crown  of  martyrdom,  Marcus  Whit- 
man, the  Presbyterian  elder  and  home  missionary. 

Dr.  Whitman,  witli  his  young  bride,  and  Rev.  H.  H. 
Spalding,  also  recently  married  and  accompanied  by  iiis 
wife,  crossed  the  plains  in  1836,  and  established  a  mis- 
sion on  the  upper  Columbia,  near  the  present  city  of 
Walla  Walla.  General  John  C.  Fremont  is  popularly 
known  as  the  "  Path-finder."  We  think  of  the  daring 
soldier  threading  his  way  past  warlike  Indians  and  over 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  87 

unknown  alkali  deserts  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  tlius  pre- 
paring the  way  for  those  who  were  to  follow. 

But  it  is  well  to  renienihcr  that  six  years  before  Fre- 
mont had  discovered  the  famous  South  Pass  in  the 
liockies  two  Presbyterian  home  missionaries  and  their 
young  wives  had  gone  ahead  to  prepare  the  way  for  the 
Path-finder. 

When  AVhitman  and  his  party  had  passed  the  spot 
which  marks  the  dividing  line  between  the  Mississippi 
Valley  and  the  Pacific  Slope  they  stopped  and  dis- 
mounted. Spreading  their  blankets,  they  lifted  the 
American  flag,  read  a  chapter  from  God's  word,  and 
took  possession  of  the  land  in  the  name  of  Christ  and 
the  Church.  Barrows,  the  historian,  well  says  that 
along  with  the  historic  scenes  of  Balboa  at  Panama  and 
the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth  Rock,  there  should  be  a  place 
for  the  picture  of  these  home  missionaries  kneeling 
around  the  open  Book,  with  the  American  flag  floating 
overhead. 

You  all  are  familiar,  no  doubt,  with  the  story  of 
Whitman's  ride  to  Washington  in  the  winter  of  1842-43. 
You  have  noticed  also,  perhaps,  the  attempts  to  dis- 
parage the  services  of  Whitman  by  those  who  insist  that 
the  Northwest  Pacific  might  have  been  saved  to  the 
United  States  even  if  that  winter's  ride  had  not  been 
taken. 

And  now  it  will  be  in  order  for  some  one  to  attempt 
to  rob  Columbus  of  his  glory  by  insisting  that  America 
would  have  been  discovered  even  if  he  had  never  lived  ; 
and  Washington  of  his,  by  declaring  that  the  colonies 


88  CENTENNIAL    OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

might  have  become  free  without  his  help;  and  Lincohi 
of  his,  by  trying  to  prove  that  emancipation  miglit  have 
come  in  some  otlicr  way.  These  facts,  however,  remain  : 
that  Marcus  Whitman,  with  a  single  companion,  did 
make  that  fearful  journey  through  the  snow  to  tell  the 
President  that  the  British  were  planning  to  seize  the 
territory.  He  did  plead  earnestly  with  President  Tyler 
and  Secretary  AVebster  to  hold  the  land.  He  did  guide 
a  great  wagon  train  across  the  prairies,  and  thus  insure 
the  territory  for  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  Therefore  Ave 
have  the  right  to  place  in  one  column  the  little  salary 
paid  to  Marcus  Whitman,  missionary  to  the  Cayuse 
Indians,  and  in  the  other  the  almost  fabulous  wealth  of 
Idaho,  Oregon,  Washington,  and  Alaska,  and  to  say  to 
the  skeptic,  "  Here,  reckon  up  for  yourself  the  indebted- 
ness of  this  nation  to  the  cause  of  home  missions." 

The  first  Presbyterian  church  on  the  Pacific  Coast  was 
organized  in  1846  by  the  Rev.  Lewis  Thompson  at 
Clatsop  Plains,  Oregon,  near  the  spot  where  Lewis  and 
Clarke  had  spent  a  winter  forty  years  before,  between 
their  memorable  expeditions  across  the  continent.  The 
Presbytery  of  Oregon  was  organized  i  n  1 8  5  L  The  Synod 
of  the  Pacific,  including  the  present  States  of  California, 
Oregon,  Washington,  Idaho,  and  part  of  Montana,  was 
organized  in  1853  in  San  Francisco.  It  was  some  1250 
miles  long  by  700  miles  wide,  and  had  an  area  as  large 
as  all  New  England  and  New  York,  Pennsylvania, 
Ohio,  Illinois,  Indiana,  and  Iowa,  with  enough  over  to 
make  a  State  the  size  of  South  Carolina.  In  1876  the 
Synod  of  the  Pacific  was  divided   into  the  Synod  of 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  3nSST0NS  89 

California  and  the  Synod  of  the  Columbia.  In  1890 
the  Synod  of  the  Columbia  was  divided  into  the  Synod 
of  Oregon  and  the  Synod  of  Washington. 

For  over  a  half  century  the  home  missionaries  of 
the  Pacific  Northwest  have  been  plunging  into  the  for- 
ests, picking  their  way  along  the  trails  of  the  miners, 
burying  themselves  for  months  at  a  time  in  isolated 
places  far  from  the  main  lines  of  travel.  They  have 
sacrificed  without  a  murmur.  They  have  won  the  re- 
spect of  the  rough  backwoodsmen  who  hate  shams. 
They  have  not  feared  to  declare  the  whole  counsel  of 
God  to  men  who  did  not  want  to  believe  that  the  gospel 
was  true.  I  wish  you  might  know  some  of  our  home 
missionary  soldiers — your  home  missionary  soldiers — 
whose  heroisms  are  rarely  heralded  abroad  and  who 
have  no  martial  music  to  inspire  them  to  battle.  Let 
me  introduce  you  to  some  of  them.  Here  comes  one 
swinging  up  the  street  on  his  pony  ;  his  long  ulster  is 
covered  with  mud ;  he  has  on  rubber  boots  that  come 
to  his  hips.  His  white  necktie  has  got  around  under  his 
ear.  His  face  beams  with  such  joy  as  danced  in  the 
eyes  of  the  seventy  when  they  returned  to  the  Master. 
The  hand  that  grasps  yours  is  not  dainty  and  white, 
like  that  of  the  flishionable  preacher  who  spends  his 
forenoons  over  his  books  and  his  afternoons  over  the 
teacups.  It  is  rough  and  brown  and  strong.  He  has 
ridden  thirty-five  miles,  through  the  mud,  since  seven 
o'clock  this  morning.  Yesterday  he  went  to  a  little 
church  off  in  the  foothills,  built  the  fire,  rang  the  bell, 
conducted  the  service,  superintended  the  Sunday  school, 


90  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

led  the  singing  for  the  Christian  Endeavor  Society,  and 
preached  in  the  evening.  Here  is  another,  who  has  just 
returned  from  a  trip  through  the  "  cow  "  counties.  Last 
Tuesday  you  might  have  seen  him  on  a  stage  with  his 
felt  hat  drawn  down  over  his  eyes  trying  to  catch  a  few 
winks  of  sleep  between  jolts  as  he  drew  near  the  end  of 
a  journey  of  180  miles  from  the  railroad.  On  Wednes- 
day he  went  with  a  local  missionary  from  store  to  store 
to  raise  money  for  the  coming  year.  In  the  evening  he 
told  the  old  story  of  Calvary  to  a  rough  crowd  that  filled 
the  little  church  to  the  doors.  Thursday  he  moved  on 
fifty  miles,  and  preached  to  men  who  had  not  heard  a 
sermon  in  twenty  years.  Last  year  he  traveled  by 
stage  and  horseback  and  boat  a  distance  of  27,000 
miles,  and  was  with  his  family  37  days  out  of  the  365. 
Here  is  another.  He  knows  every  trout  stream  within 
twenty-five  miles  of  his  station,  can  kill  a  deer  every 
shot  at  fifty  yards,  and  preach  six  nights  in  a  week 
without  getting  tired.  An  anarchist  in  his  town,  hear- 
ing that  President  IMcKinley  had  been  assassinated, 
said,  "  I'm  glad  of  it ;  he  ought  to  hav^e  been  killed 
long  ago."  When  this  home  missionary  heard  what 
his  townsman  had  said,  he  went  to  the  anarchist's 
store,  looked  the  man  straight  in  the  eye,  and  said,  "  My 
friend,  I  understand  you  said  this  morning  that  you  were 
glad  our  President  had  been  shot.  You  ought  to  be 
ashamed  of  yourself.  I  want  to  tell  you  that  if  I  ever 
hear  of  you  saying  such  a  thing  agam  I'll  give  you  the 
worst  thrashing  you  ever  had."  The  anarchist  looked 
the  preacher  over  a  moment,  as  if  noting  the  broad 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  91 

slioulders  and  the  meaning  of  the  steady  gray  eyes  ;  then 
he  apologized,  and  said  he  would  never  say  such  a  thing 
again.  That  is  the  way  our  home  missionaries  some- 
times preach  the  gospel  of  patriotism. 

Have  you  any  idea  of  the  monotony  amidst  which 
some  of  those  men  live  and  move  and  have  their  being  ? 
It  is  one  thing  to  delight  over  the  sparkling  pages  of 
the  Sky  Pilot.  It  is  a  second  thing  to  visit  a  lumber 
camp  for  a  day,  or  spend  a  few  hours  in  a  rollicking 
mining  town.  It  is  a  third  thing  to  listen  to  blasphemy 
three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days  in  a  year,  to  give  one's 
heart  and  head  and  hand  to  the  work  with  full  devotion 
for  twelve  months  and  apparently  make  no  more  impres- 
sion on  the  godliness  of  a  town  than  if  a  cowboy  had 
taken  a  shot  at  the  moon  ;  to  face  the  same  rocky  canyons 
and  the  same  desolate  hills  month  after  month  and  year 
after  year. 

Let  me  tell  you  a  little  incident  to  illustrate  the 
dreary  lives  of  some  of  the  people  who  live  in  the 
West.  A  friend  of  mine  was  traveling  in  eastern 
Oregon  some  months  ago,  when  he  found  it  necessary  to 
stop  for  the  night  at  a  little  ranch  house  off  on  one  of 
the  ranges.  He  found  the  rancher's  wife  and  daughter 
busy  with  their  tasks.  While  the  stranger  sat  before 
the  kitchen  stove  the  mother  and  daughter,  without 
leaving  their  work  for  a  moment,  told  with  glowing 
faces  of  a  great  joy  that  was  soon  to  be  theirs.  For 
fourteen  long  years  the  mother  had  slaved  on  the  ranch. 
During  all  that  time  she  had  never  so  much  as  visited  a 
town,  while  the  little  girl  had  never  seen  even  a  store  in 


92  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

all  her  life.  Every  morning  the  rancher  sprang  on  his 
pony  and  was  off  with  his  men.  He  often  fonnd  it 
necessary  to  go  to  the  railroad  for  snpjilies.  He  had 
his  conipanionships  and  his  digressions.  He  was  a  good 
man  and  loved  his  family,  but  he  was  thoughtless  and 
allowed  the  wife  and  daughter  to  toil  on  like  galley- 
slaves  chained  to  their  oars.  But  at  last  they  were  to 
visit  the  town  seventy  miles  away.  The  rancher  had 
promised  them  that  in  the  fall  they  should  go  with  him 
to  market  his  stock.  How  excited  they  were  as  they 
told  the  stranger  about  it  all !  How  many  things  they 
were  going  to  see  and  buy  !  What  a  good  rest  they  were 
going  to  have !  Their  hands  fairly  flew  as  the  vision 
floated  before  them  and  lured  them  on.  Then,  while  the 
smiles  of  anticipation  were  still  on  their  foces,  the 
rancher  came  in.  He  was  a  great  rough,  broad-shouldered 
man.  He  had  ridden  far  in  search  of  some  missing 
stock,  which  he  had  not  found.  He  was  disappointed 
and  cross.  After  greeting  the  visitor  he  flung  himself 
into  a  chair  and  began  the  conversation  with  two 
blundering  sentences  which  seemed  to  snap  the  strings 
of  two  poor  hearts  :  "  You  women  can't  go  to  town  this 
fall ;  you'll  have  to  put  it  off  another  year."  The  little 
girl's  eyes  instantly  sought  the  mother's  face  in  dumb 
bewilderment,  and  the  two  stood  for  a  moment  as  if 
paralvzed  by  the  disappointment.  The  daughter  whis- 
pered, "  Mamma,  can't  we  go  ?"  The  mother  motioned 
to  the  child  to  keep  still,  and  the  two  turned  to  stagger 
along  toward  the  old  tasks.  I  suppose  they  never  will 
know  what  a  city  really  is  until  they  behold  that  city 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  93 

which  hath  foundations,  whose  builder  and  maker  is 
God. 

It  is  to  such  people  that  our  home  missionaries  min- 
ister. It  is  in  such  surroundings  that  they  live.  It  is 
such  crushing  monotony  that  some  of  them  must  endure. 
\¥ill  you  be  surprised  if  I  tell  you  that  at  a  spring  meet- 
ing of  presbytery  one  of  them  has  been  overheard  saying 
to  another,  "  I  wish  it  was  my  turn  to  go  to  the  Assem- 
bly. I  haven't  seen  my  parents  for  twelve  years.  And 
my  wife  wants  to  visit  her  old  mother  just  once  more 
before  she  dies."  God  bless  the  home  missionaries  of 
the  land,  those  patient,  courageous,  devoted  soldiers  of 
the  cross.  The  nation  has  no  braver  defenders  and  the 
Church  in  all  its  ministry  no  manlier,  more  faithful  men. 

California  is  a  big  State  geographically  and  almost 
every  other  way.  Victor  Hugo  reminds  us  that  the 
land  of  Job  breeds  monsters.  There  the  cat  becomes  a 
tiger,  the  lizard  a  crocodile,  the  pig  a  rhinoceros,  the 
snake  a  boa  constrictor,  the  nettle  a  cactus,  and  the  wind 
a  simoon.  But  Hugo  had  never  seen  California.  Think 
of  going  out  with  a  hook  and  line  and  catching  a  bass 
weighing  three  hundred  pounds.  Think  of  standing  at 
the  foot  of  a  granite  cliff,  and  looking  straight  up  to  its 
top,  three  thousand  feet  above  you.  Think  of  driving 
through  a  grove  of  trees  that  rear  their  heads  three 
hundred  feet  in  the  sky,  and  that  were  growing  when 
Jesus  stood  on  the  shore  of  Galilee.  It  has  been  aptly 
remarked  that  California  has  its  eye  chronically  focussed 
for  large  dimensions,  and  that  its  first  conscious  throb 
was  in  a  paroxysm  of  wild  speculation. 


94  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

No  sooner  did  the  news  reach  the  East  that  gold  had 
been  discovered  at  Sutter's  Mill,  on  the  Sacramento, 
tlian  multitudes  began  to  turn  their  faces  toward  the 
AVest.  Lawyers  closed  their  offices,  farmers  left  their 
plows,  merchants  disposed  of  their  goods  and  took  ship 
for  the  long  voyage.  But  along  with  the  eager  Argo- 
nauts, lustful  for  gold,  went  men  of  equal  daring,  but 
of  more  consecrated  spirit,  whose  ambition  was  the 
saving  of  souls.  The  three  W.'s,  as  they  are  affection- 
ately called,  had  much  to  do  with  the  beginning  of 
our  work  in  California.  Gold  was  discovered  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1848.  In  December  of  that  same  year  Rev. 
Sylvester  Woodbridge  Avas  on  his  way  to  the  Golden 
Gate,  and  in  April,  1849,  at  Benicia,  organized  the  first 
Protestant  church  in  California.  Rev.  Albert  AVilliams 
followed  the  first  "  W."  in  two  months,  and  in  the  fol- 
lowing May  organized  the  First  Presbyterian  Church 
of  San  Francisco,  with  six  members.  The  third  "  W.," 
Rev.  James  Woods,  left  New  York  in  May,  1849,  and 
reached  his  destination  after  a  voyage  of  three  months. 
That  the  experiences  of  Mr.  Woods  on  the  ocean  were 
not  altogether  to  his  taste  we  may  infer  from  the  ingen- 
uous remark  with  which  he  begins  his  delightful  book 
of  reminiscences  :  "  The  sweetest  music  I  ever  heard  of 
earthly  note  or  ever  expect  to  hear,  until  the  melody  of 
golden  harps  shall  break  upon  the  enraptured  spirit, 
was  the  rattling  of  the  iron  cable  singing  the  march  of 
the  anchor  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  to  grapple  with  the 
rocks  and  hold  us  to  safe  mooring  in  the  harbor  of  San 
Francisco."    To  Mr.  Woods  belono^s  the  honor  of  build- 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  95 

ing  tlie  first  Presbyterian  church  in  the  State,  at  Stock- 
ton, in  1850. 

One  is  bewildered  as  he  confronts  the  wealth  of 
material  which  early  Presbyterianism  in  California 
affords.  Our  home  missionaries  were  as  untiring  as  the 
gold  seekers.  They  sought  out  the  most  remote  camps 
with  the  eagerness  of  prospectors.  They  seized  strat- 
egic points  with  the  foresight  and  skill  of  a  statesman. 
The  scholarly  Dr.  Scott,  fresh  from  a  church  of  com- 
manding influence  in  New  Orleans,  brought  to  the  work 
his  splendid  gifts  of  organization  and  administration. 
He  was  a  leading  spirit  in  laying  the  foundation  of  our 
Theological  Seminary  now  located  at  San  Anselmo. 
We  may  get  some  idea  of  the  stuff  of  which  those  men 
were  made  by  recalling  the  reply  of  young  Brier,  who 
when  asked  by  the  Board  Secretary  where  he  wanted 
to  go,  replied,  "  Give  me  the  hardest  field  you  have." 
He  was  sent  to  California.  The  experiences  of  the 
missionaries  were  often  exciting,  if  not  always  altogether 
pleasant.  One  preacher,  on  being  shown  to  his  room 
at  the  hotel,  noticed  a  hole  in  one  of  the  windowpanes 
at  the  head  of  the  bed.  "  How  did  that  get  there  ?  " 
asked  the  preacher.  "  Oh,"  replied  the  landlord,  lan- 
guidly, "  a  man  was  shot  in  that  bed  yesterday."  It 
was  a  common  thing  to  hear  the  remark,  "  We  are 
having  a  very  quiet  time.  No  one  has  been  killed  for 
a  week.  It  is  time  we  had  a  free  fight  and  some 
funerals."  It  took  men  of  grace  and  grit  to  move 
calmly  through  such  scenes,  and,  looking  into  the  faces 
of  men  who  thought  no  more  of  shooting  down  a  man 


96  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

than  a  dog,  to  toll  tlicni  that  they  Avere  on  the  swift  road 
to  hell.  The  synodical  missionary  for  so  many  years 
(Thomas  Fraser)  swept  his  eye  over  his  vast  field,  which, 
as  some  one  has  put  it,  extended  from  San  Diego  to  the 
North  Pole,  and  directed  his  troops  like  a  trained  gen- 
eral. Going  down  into  the  chaparral  and  sage  brush  and 
jrravel  of  southern  California  he  found  a  little  settlement 
composed  largely  of  Spaniards,  where  some  Presbyterian 
work  had  been  begun  and  abandoned.  Writing  back 
to  the  Board  he  said,  "  There  are  places  which  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  must  take  and  hold,  regardless  of 
expense,  as  England  holds  Gibraltar."  Back  came  the 
word  indicating  a  commingling  of  skepticism  in  the 
field  with  confidence  in  the  man.  "  If  you  begin  that 
work  it  must  be  on  your  own  faith,  not  on  ours."  The 
-work  was  reorganized.  In  a  few  years  new  people 
began  to  pour  in.  A  $50,000  church  was  built.  Colo- 
nies were  sent  out  to  form  other  organizations.  To-day 
there  are  upon  the  floor  of  this  Assembly  representatives 
from  that  settlement  in  the  chaparral  bushes  which  Dr. 
Fraser  visited  in  1874.  They  are  here  representing 
3500  Presbyterian  church  members,  to  invite  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  to  meet  next  year  in  their  beautiful  city 
of  Los  Angeles  to  partake  of  such  hospitality  as  only 
Californians  know  how  to  give. 

And  what  shall  I  say  more  ?  The  time  would  fail 
me  to  tell  of  the  abundant  labors  of  Willey  and  Doug- 
las, and  Bell  and  Burrow^s,  and  Harmon  and  Walsworth 
and  Alexander,  who  organized  churches,  planted  schools, 
endured  hardships.     All  these  have  "  obtained  a  good 


CENTENNIAL    OF  HOME  MISSIONS  97 

report,"  and    most   of  them   have   entered   into   their 
reward. 

You  who  have  never  been  in  the  Pacific  Northwest 
think  of  Alaska  as  a  frozen  waste,  which  has  been 
brought  to  the  world's  attention  temporarily  by  the 
discovery  of  gold,  and  which  in  a  few  years  will  be 
given  over  again  to  the  seal  hunters  and  the  Esquimaux. 
You  who  have  sailed  along  the  beautiful  fiords  of  the 
northlaud  in  an  excursion  steamer  think  of  it  as  a  land 
of  magnificent  scenery,  of  great  rivers  of  ice,  by  the 
side  of  which  the  glaciers  of  Switzerland  would  seem 
hardly  large  enough  to  supply  an  ordinary  ice  chest, 
and  which  after  a  few  years  will  become  a  play  ground 
for  tourists.  I  pick  up  the  latest  folder,  sent  out  by  one 
of  the  transcontinental  railroads,  which  are  always  sup- 
posed to  speak  the  truth,  and  read  that  "  fiirmers  should 
not  think  of  going  to  Alaska,  since  no  agricultural  prod- 
ucts of  any  kind  can  be  successfully  raised  in  that 
country."  A  special  Government  agent  recently  sent 
out  by  the  Department  of  Agriculture  brings  us  a  very 
different  report.  He  saw  in  gardens,  in  Sitka,  as  fine 
potatoes,  cauliflower,  cabbage,  lettuce,  and  radishes,  as 
can  be  found  anywhere  on  this  continent.  He  met  a 
man  who  had  turned  out  forty-five  head  of  horses  in  the 
fall  of  1899,  and  the  next  spring  had  rounded  up  forty- 
three  of  them  alive  and  well.  He  discovered  that  in 
one  stretch  of  400  miles  along  the  Yukon  there  were 
two  million  acres  of  good  pasture  and  farm  land.  At 
one  of  the  mission  stations  he  asked  that  the  cattle, 
which,  by  the  Avay,  the  Indians  call  "  McKiuley 
7 


98  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

moose,"  be  turned  into  the  pasture  that  he  might  photo- 
graph them,  when  to  his  astonishment  he  found  that  the 
cattle  were  soon  totally  out  of  sight  in  the  tall  grass 
which  reached  above  their  backs.  He  reported  to  the 
Government  that  Alaska  can  furnish  homesteads  of  320 
acres  each  to  200,000  families.  AVhile  in  addition  to 
all  tliis,  it  is  the  judgment  of  the  most  conservative  men 
there  that  the  gold  supply,  instead  of  being  almost 
exhausted,  as  yet  has  hardly  been  touched.  Long 
before  the  discovery  of  gold  on  the  Yukon  turned  the 
attention  of  the  world  toward  Alaska,  the  Presbyterian 
Church  was  establishing  missions,  training  the  natives, 
and  building  up  its  splendid  industrial  plant  in  Sitka. 
For  many  years  Dr.  Lindsley,  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Portland,  bore  ujjon  his  heart  the  needs  of 
the  Alaskan  Indians.  In  1869,  when  William  H. 
Seward  was  returning  from  the  north,  the  eager  pastor 
met  the  secretary  in  Victoria  and  talked  with  him  con- 
cerning the  people  of  the  newly  acquired  territory.  He 
organized  the  first  American  church  there.  He  secured 
the  money  and  materials  for  the  first  church  building 
that  was  erected  in  Alaska,  and  up  to  the  day  of  his 
death  was  keenly  interested  in  all  that  pertained  to  the 
natives  of  the  north.  To  him  rightly  belongs  the  title 
*'  The  Father  of  Alaskan  Missions."  Kev.  Dr.  S.  Hall 
Young,  who  has  returned  to  his  former  field  of  labor, 
began  work  at  Fort  Wrangel  in  1878.  It  was  there 
that  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  in  Alaska  was 
organized  in  the  following  year.  Dr.  Sheldon  Jackson 
is  recognized  throughout  our  Church  as  Alaska's  mis- 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  1)9 

sionary  bishop.  He  has  been  with  the  work  practically 
from  the  beginning.  To  his  indomitable  energy  and 
clear  vision  is  largely  due  our  success  in  that  fascinating 
field.  The  President  of  the  United  States  brought 
honor  to  himself  when  he  called  to  the  highest  office  in 
that  vast  empire  a  man  who  went  forth  as  a  humble 
home  missionary  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  Governor 
John  G.  Brady. 

The  remark  is  sometimes  made  that  the  best  Indian  is 
a  dead  Indian.  Let  me  tell  you  a  little  story.  In 
one  of  the  Alaskan  towns  composed  of  Christian 
Indians  the  government  is  in  the  hands  of  twenty 
council  men  suggested  by  the  missionary  and  elected 
by  the  natives.  On  a  certain  occasion  the  mission- 
ary called  the  Indians  together,  nominated  one  of 
their  number,  and  asked  them  to  vote.  Every  Indian 
was  given  a  button.  When  the  ballot  box  was  passed 
every  one  in  turn  was  to  put  his  hand  in  the  box.  If 
he  ratified  the  nomination  he  was  to  retain  the  button, 
but  if  not  the  button  was  to  be  dropped.  Accordingly, 
the  box  was"  passed,  and  to  his  surprise  the  missionary 
found  that  some  one  had  dropped  his  button.  Think- 
ing there  might  have  been  a  mistake  the  missionary 
ordered  another  election,  and  again  one  button  was 
found  in  the  box.  The  missionary  was  perplexed.  He 
determined  to  find  out  why  anyone  should  oppose  his 
nominee.  Therefore  he  requested  that  the  man  who 
put  in  the  button  should  come  to  his  house  the  next 
afternoon  and  explain.  At  the  appointed  time  an 
Indian  appeared  and  said,  "  I  am  the  man."     "What 


100  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

objection  have  you  to  ray  nominee?"  asked  the  mission- 
ary. "  Well,  not  long  ago  that  man  and  I  went  to 
Bella  Bella  to  trade.  The  storekeeper  gave  him  a 
dollar  too  much  in  change.  When  he  saw  it  he  whis- 
pered to  me  and  said,  '  Shall  I  keep  it  ? '  I  said,  '  No, 
that  would  be  stealing,'  and  he  gave  it  back.  I  think 
that  a  man  who  would  even  stop  to  ask  such  a  question 
is  not  fit  to  be  a  councilman." 

My  friends  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia  and  Chi- 
cago and  St.  Louis,  are  all  your  aldermen  so  exceedingly 
conscientious  that  they  would  hesitate  about  keeping  a 
dollar  which  was  not  theirs,  and  would  they  give  it  back 
to  its  rightful  owner  ?  Sometimes  returning  tourists, 
after  spending  their  time  peeking  into  dance  houses  and 
investigating  the  quarters  of  the  ranch  Indians,  insist 
that  missions  in  Alaska  are  a  failure.  Let  me  tell  you 
another  story.  A  few  years  ago,  while  on  an  excursion  to 
Alaska,  I  overheard  the  passengers  criticising  the  work 
of  the  missionaries  until  my  cheeks  flushed  with  indig- 
nation. On  the  Sabbath  I  was  invited  to  conduct  ser- 
vices on  shipboard  and  determined  to  give  the  people  an 
object  lesson.  A  young  Indian  from  New  Metlakahtla, 
to  whom  I  had  been  introduced,  had  come  on  board.  I 
consulted  with  him  and  arranged  a  plan  into  which  he 
entered  with  the  greatest  eagerness.  When  the  hour 
came  for  worship  the  dining  saloon  was  crowded  with 
worshipers.  I  conducted  the  services  up  to  the  time 
for  the  sermon.  Then  I  said,  "  When  you  return  to  the 
States  you  will  want  to  tell  the  people  something  about 
Alaskan  missions.     This  morning  we  have  with  us  a 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  101 

full-blood  Indian,  whose  ancestors  were  such  people  as 
you  have  seen  in  the  ranches.  I  have  asked  liim  to  tell 
us  something  about  the  work  of  the  missionaries  among 
his  people."  The  young  man  arose.  His  very  appear- 
ance commanded  instant  attention.  He  had  a  large 
head.  His  hair  was  as  black  as  a  raven's  wing.  He 
was  a  college  graduate  and  an  accomplished  musician. 
He  had  taken  a  course  in  law  and  had  just  finished  the 
middle  year  in  the  Theological  Seminary.  In  choice 
English  he  spoke  for  over  half  an  hour,  telling  of  the 
marvelous  changes  that  had  come  to  his  people,  who, 
instead  of  being  the  savages  that  William  Duncan 
had  found  there  forty  years  before,  had  their  canneries, 
their  stores,  their  printing  presses,  their  schools,  and 
their  churches.  As  he  closed  his  address  he  said  with 
flashing  eye,  "  And  now  I  want  you  to  know  that  all 
this  has  come  about  not  through  the  Government,  for 
the  Government  was  here  before,  and  not  through  the 
traders,  for  they  have  brought  us  only  their  vices ;  but 
through  the  simple  preaching  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ."  The  people  listened  with  breathless  interest, 
and  when  the  service  was  over  one  who  had  been  the 
loudest  in  denunciation  of  the  missionaries  came  forward 
and  said  :  "  I  have  been  converted."  I  have  the  pleas- 
ure of  introducing  to  you  to-day  that  young  Indian,  with 
whose  name  many  of  you  are  now  familiar,  the  Rev. 
Edward  Marsden,  now  laboring  among  his  people  at 
Saxman,  Alaska. 

It  makes  one's  blood  tingle  to  the  finger  tips  to  know 
of  the  noble  men  and  women  who  have  gone  to  the  far 


102  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  3nSSI0NS 

northland  with  the  bhie  banner  of  Presbytcrianism  just 
beneath  the  flag  of  the  cross.  Away  up  within  tlie 
Arctic  Circle  went  young  Dr.  Marsh  witii  his  bride, 
where  the  monarch  whose  throne  is  of  ice  and  in  whose 
dark  audience  chamber  flashes  the  Aurora,  built  about 
them  great  ramparts  of  snow  and  for  nine  long  months 
shut  them  in.  Gambeland  his  wife,  on  the  way  to  their 
lonely  station  on  St.  Lawrence  Island,  found  graves  in 
the  depths  of  an  Arctic  sea.  At  Juneau  and  Wrangle 
and  Skaguay  and  Nome  and  the  rest,  our  home  mission- 
aries are  at  work  endeavoring  to  lay  deep  and  strong  the 
foundations  of  a  great  empire.  How  can  we  sit  with 
folded  arms  or  offer  perfunctory  prayers  when  new  lands 
are  being  discovered,  great  sacrifices  are  being  made  in 
the  name  of  Jesus,  and  vast  possibilities  await  the  put- 
ting forth  of  our  hands  ? 

Even  a  hasty  review  of  the  home  mission  enterprise 
on  the  Pacific  Coast  produces  some  profound  impres- 
sions. The  returns  are  quick,  abundant,  and  substantial. 
In  religious  work  it  is  much  as  it  is  in  soil  culture.  One 
year  a  traveler  through  the  Yakima  Valley  in  Wash- 
ington or  the  chaparral  country  of  Lower  California 
might  see  only  vast  desolate  stretches,  where  even  a  vul- 
ture could  hardly  exist.  Five  years  afterwards  the  same 
traveler  passing  through  the  same  country  might  find 
himself  in  such  a  garden  spot  as  his  eyes  never  looked 
upon.  The  simple  turning  of  a  little  stream  from  its 
channel  is  able  to  work  such  wonders  as  we  used  to  think 
could  be  read  about  only  in  fairy  books.  Consider  some 
of  the  lightning  transformations  which  have  taken  place. 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  103 

Less  than  fifty  years  ago  a  home  missionary  stood  under 
a  h've  oak  across  the  bay  from  San  Francisco  and  de- 
livered the  first  sermon  ever  preached  in  the  little  vil- 
lage that  was  springing  up  there.  To-day  the  city  of 
Oakland  is  a  city  of  churches  and  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church  is  a  tower  of  strength.  Fifty-three  years  ago 
to-morrow  a  home  missionary  organized  the  First  Pres- 
byterian Church  of  San  Francisco  with  six  members. 
Only  a  few  years  passed  by,  when  a  member  of  that 
congregation  gave  $300,000  to  equip  our  Theological 
Seminary  at  San  Anselmo.  Forty  years  ago  the  Board 
of  Home  Missions  decided  to  invest  some  money  in  a 
little  town  on  the  Willamette  River  in  Oregon.  It  put 
in  $400  the  first  year,  $300  the  second  year,  and  $200 
in  each  of  the  two  following  years.  And  this  was  the 
result,  financially  stated  :  In  the  five  years,  from  1889 
to  1894  inclusive,  that  one  church  in  which  the  Board 
of  Home  Missions  invested  a  total  of  $1100,  gave  back 
to  the  cause  of  home  missions,  in  round  numbers,  the 
sum  of  $45,000.  It  raised  for  the  other  agencies  of  the 
church,  including  congregational  expenses,  the  sum  of 
$250,000,  and  gave  another  quarter  of  a  million  to 
equip  one  of  the  finest  academies  to  be  found  between 
the  oceans.  Even  a  California  real  estate  boomer  has  no 
such  investments  to  offer. 

I  feel  that  it  would  be  unpardonable,  even  in  the 
most  cursory  review,  to  omit  mention  of  the  fact  that 
into  the  membership  of  the  church  which  the  Board 
of  Home  Missions  started  away  off  there  in  Oregon 
forty  years  ago,  there  came  two  men  of  large  and  con- 


104  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

secrated  wealth,  whose  names  deserve  to  be  knoAvn  and 
held  in  honor  by  Presbyterians  everywhere.  AYilliam 
S.  Ladd  and  Henry  W.  Corbett  for  over  a  quarter  of  a 
century  gave  with  princely  generosity  to  all  the  agencies 
of  our  denomination.  And  it  is  generally  understood 
that  there  is  scarcely  a  Presbyterian  church  building  in 
the  States  of  Oregon,  Washington,  and  Idaho,  in  which 
those  royal  men  did  not  invest  at  least  a  hundred  dol- 
lars each. 

Well,  if  the  churches  on  the  Pacific  Coast  are  thus 
rolling  in  wealth,  how  comes  it  that  we  make  our  pitiful 
appeals  in  the  East  for  help  and  urge  Sunday  school 
scholars  to  save  up  their  pennies  to  send  the  gospel  to 
the  destitute  places  on  the  Pacific  Coast  ? 

Let  me  tell  you.  I  have  simply  been  trying  to  give 
you  some  idea  of  the  possible  yield  if  only  the  soil  \vere 
brought  under  cultivation.  We  have  a  rich,  vast  terri- 
tory, but  it  is  sparsely  settled  as  yet,  and  the  men  of 
wealth  in  onr  churches  are  very  few.  Out  of  the  States 
of  California,  Oregon,  and  Washington  might  be  carved 
forty  New  Jerseys  with  enough  over  for  three  States 
the  size  of  Massachusetts.  In  your  Synod  of  New 
Jersey  you  have  over  75,000  Presbyterians  and  over 
300  churches,  most  of  them  strong  and  well  equipped  ; 
while  we,  covering  a  territory  forty  times  as  large,  have 
only  a  little  over  half  as  many  members,  and  our  really 
strong  churches  could  be  counted  on  the  fingers  of  your 
two  hands.  Oregon,  whicli  covers  a  territory  as  large 
as  the  States  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  combined, 
has  only  five  Presbyterian  churches  that  have  a  mem- 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  105 

bership  of  even  200.  We  have  single  connties  as  large 
as  the  entire  State  of  Delaware  with  only  one  Presby- 
terian missionary  within  its  bounds.  How  stupendous 
the  task !  How  vast  the  possibilities !  With  what 
eagerness  the  Church  should  spring  to  the  work  ! 

The  eyes  of  multitudes  in  the  East  are  now  being 
turned  to  our  western  sea.  The  Puget  Sound  country 
is  attracting  hosts  of  bright,  brainy,  busy  youths  from 
the  older  States.  Lumbermen  are  coming  from  Michi- 
gan and  Wisconsin,  where  the  forests  have  almost  dis- 
appeared, and  are  buying  up  the  rich  timber  lands  of 
Oregon.  California  is  now  recognized  as  the  world's 
fruit  garden.  And  all  three  States  are  only  at  the 
threshold  of  their  greatness.  You  got  a  hint  during  the 
war  with  Spain  of  the  place  we  are  to  occupy  some  day 
in  the  national  life.  The  ship  that  led  the  fleet  right 
over  the  sunken  mines  at  Manila  and  to  its  splendid 
victory  bore  a  name  of  magic,  for  we  of  the  coast  had 
named  it  after  one  of  our  cities,  the  Olympia.  At  San- 
tiago the  one  battleship  that  called  forth  the  world's 
unanimous  admiration  and  wonder  by  means  of  its  mar- 
velous 13,000-mile  voyage  and  its  inspiring  dash,  we 
had  constructed  on  the  western  coast  and  christened 
the  Oregon.  The  Pacific  Coast  has  suddenly  assumed 
a  new  significance.  As  by  the  turn  of  a  kaleidoscope 
the  geography  of  the  world  has  been  shaken  into  a  new 
combination.  All  the  world  forces  are  seen  g-athered 
about  the  western  sea,  as  if  preparing  for  humanity's 
final  contest.  The  commercial  powers  of  the  world  are 
there.     The  engine-makers  of  America  are  contesting 


106  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

witli  the  engine-makers  of  England.  Flour-makers 
from  Minnesota  are  in  Japan  contesting  with  flour- 
makers  from  Russia.  Great  siiip  freighters  are  now  on 
the  stocks  in  the  American  yards  which  are  intended 
to  help  win  for  America  the  world's  commercial  su- 
premacy. The  political  powers  of  the  earth  are  gathered 
about  the  western  sea,  as  if  preparing  for  the  final  con- 
flict. China  is  there  with  such  possibilities  of  evil  as 
make  us  afraid  to  think ;  with  such  possibilities  of  good 
as  to  bewilder  our  hopes.  Japan  is  there,  alert  and 
aggressive.  England  is  there  with  mighty  fleets  and 
vast  interests.  Germany  and  France  and  the  Nether- 
lands all  are  there,  eager  and  expectant.  Russia,  resist- 
less and  mysterious,  has  at  last  made  its  way  overland 
to  the  scene  of  greatest  interest ;  while  in  a  day  the 
United  States  has  made  its  way  over  sea  and  confronts 
the  rest.  There  they  seem  to  pause  for  a  moment 
awaiting  a  signal.  Who  has  the  audacity  to  prophesy 
days  and  ways?  Who  is  so  faithless  as  to  question  the 
result?  The  religions  of  the  world  are  gathered  about 
the  western  sea  getting  in  readiness  for  the  culminating 
battle.  The  followers  of  Confucius  are  there  by  the 
million.  Buddha's  monks  long  ago  carried  the  message 
of  their  master  to  the  lands  that  fringe  the  Pacific.  The 
followers  of  the  Arabian  prophet,  numbering  twenty 
millions  in  southern  China  alone,  are  pushing  their 
campaign  with  fanatical  enthusiasm.  While  the  soldiers 
of  the  cross,  moving  westward  from  their  Asiatic  home, 
have  now  almost  encompassed  the  globe,  and  with  the 
resistless  strength  of  wealth  and  intelligence  and  spirit- 


CENTEN^TAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  107 

ual  power  at  their  comiiumd,  have  sent  ahead  their 
scouts  for  the  battle  of  Armageddon.  Twenty-five 
years  from  now  the  conflict  will  be  at  its  height,  and 
in  fifty  years  the  victory  may  be  won.  Then  let  tlie 
Church  at  once  mass  its  strength  there  on  the  Pacific. 
What  general  ever  acquired  triumphs  by  sending  camp- 
followers  and  the  disabled  to  the  front.  Send  your 
strongest  into  the  mountains  and  to  the  North  where 
men  dig  for  gold,  and  into  the  forests  where  the  future 
cities  are  to  be.  Strengthen  the  school  of  the  prophets 
at  the  Golden  Gate.  Give  us  strong  Christian  colleges 
that  shall  command  the  great  empire  for  Christ.  Then 
eager  hands  will  carry  the  banner  of  the  cross  on  and  on 
toward  the  farther  west  until  it  halts  at  last  on  Calvary, 
whence  it  started  so  long  ago. 

In  the  village  of  Chamouni,  nestled  trustfully  in  a 
Swiss  villa,  is  a  beautiful  bronze  monument  erected  to 
the  memory  of  Saussure,  the  Swiss  geologist.  Balmat, 
the  guide,  stands  at  one  side  looking  into  Saussure's 
foce,  with  his  outstretched  finger  pointing  to  some  object 
in  the  distance.  The  geologist  with  wide-open  eyes  is 
looking  in  the  direction  indicated  by  the  guide.  In- 
stinctively the  traveler  turns  and  looks  upward,  when 
behold  !  there  stands  the  monarch  of  the  Alps  as  calm 
as  if  made  for  eternity  and  as  beautiful  as  if  fresh  from 
the  hand  of  God.  I  would  that  some  such  piece  of 
bronze  were  given  a  place  in  this  throbbing  commercial 
center  of  the  world's  life.  I  would  place  upon  its  ped- 
estal the  prophetic  words  of  Thomas  H.  Benton,  who, 
turning  toward  the  Rockies,  said,  "  There  lies  the  East. 


108  CENTENNIAL   OF  JIOME  MISSIONS 

There  lies  India."  I  would  that  the  outstretched  un- 
tiring finger  might  remind  your  financiers  that  yonder 
are  their  opportunities  ;  might  be  to  your  statesmen  an 
unfailing  inspiration,  and  that  it  might  arouse  the  hosts 
of  Christ  for  their  consummate  triumph. 


Tuesday  Morning,  May  20th 


"THE  PAST  YEAR" 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  CHAIRMAN   OF  THE 

STANDING  COMMITTEE  ON 

HOME  MISSIONS 

KEV.  EICHAKD  S.  HOLMES,  D.  D. 
Pittsburgh,  Penna. 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  REV.  RICHARD  S. 
HOLMES,  D.  D. 

Chairman  of  the  Standing  Committee  on  Home  Missions. 


I  HAVE  a  great  cause  to  represent  at  a  great  epoch  in 
its  history.  I  say  this  because  this  is  a  great  epoch 
in  the  history  of  the  American  Union.  The  United 
States  have  become  a  great  domain  ;  their  Government 
is  a  great  government ;  their  executive  head  is  the  most 
powerful  sovereign  that  rules  a  nation,  albeit  he  has 
no  throne,  and  is  sovereign  only  as  all  law-abiding  citi- 
zens are  sovereign  ;  sovereign  over  self  for  the  interests 
of  the  Republic.  He  will  be  among  us  to-night,  a  plain 
man  of  the  people,  called  President,  a  title  by  which 
also  hundreds  of  his  fellow-citizens  are  called,  lending 
the  influence  of  the  position  to  which  Providence  has 
brought  him,  in  recognition  of  the  worth  of  the  work 
which  is  carried  on  by  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica. In  his  person  this  great  domain  will  to-night  be 
represented  on  the  platform  of  our  General  Assembly. 

I  emphasize  this  fact  of  domain  because,  extending 
beyond  our  own  territorial  limits,  with  foothold  and  in- 
fluence in  the  islands  of  the  eastern  and  western  oceans, 
it  lays  on  the  Church  of  the  living  God  a  burden  of 

111 


112  CENTENNIAL  OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

responsibility  for  the  character  of  that  influence  which 
is  not  measurable  by  any  standards  which  the  Morld 
possesses.  As  a  part  of  the  Church  of  God  we  must 
share  in  that  responsibility,  and  the  agency  by  \vhich 
we  shall  carry  our  part  of  the  burden,  if  we  carry  it  at 
all,  is  our  Board  of  Home  Missions. 

In  considering  this  question  of  domain  I  cannot  ex- 
clude the  thought  of  tlie  history  which  we  and  our 
fathers  have  wrought  as  an  addition  to  the  history  of 
the  world.  Of  history  and  domain  I  believe  we  have 
at  first  thought  no  adequate  conception.  A  glance  at 
the  efforts  which  have  been  made  to  write  our  history 
may  help  us  a  little.  Mr.  Bancroft  undertook  to  tell 
the  story  of  the  beginnings  of  the  nation,  and  after  fill- 
ing so  many  volumes  that  the  busy  men  of  to-day  have 
no  time  to  read  them  and  hardly  to  glance  through 
them,  he  died,  leaving  his  work  unfinished.  Mr. 
McMaster  essayed  to  write  for  this  generation  the  story 
of  our  life  since  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  after  giving 
eighteen  years  of  his  life  to  its  elucidation  and  issuing 
seven  great  volumes,  has  only  reached  the  year  1830. 
Add  now  to  this  a  brief  consideration  of  our  geographi- 
cal area.  It  extends  from  the  farthest  northern  point 
of  Alaska  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  from  Porto  Rico 
to  the  Golden  Gate.  Do  you  comprehend  the  immensity 
of  that  territory  ?  I  do  not  believe  we  are  awake  to  a 
sense  of  our  evangelistic  cares.  They  are  coextensive 
with  our  great  domain,  and  the  vastness  of  their  detail 
for  practical  treatment  is  illustrated  by  the  efforts  to 
write  our  history. 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  113 

Three  Americans  once  dining  on  a  Fourth  of  July  in 
Paris,  filled  with  a  sense  of  our  geographical  greatness, 
and  perhaps  also  otherwise  filled,  offered  a  toast  to  our 
country.  The  chairman  spoke  first,  and  said  :  "  Here's 
to  the  United  States,  bounded  ou  the  north  by  the 
British  possessions,  on  the  south  by  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
on  the  east  by  the  Atlantic,  and  on  the  west  by  the 
Pacific  Ocean."  Before  it  could  be  drunk  another 
cried,  "  Hold  on,  Mr.  Chairman,  let  me  give  that  toast : 
Here's  to  the  United  States,  bounded  on  the  north  by  the 
North  Pole,  on  the  south  by  the  South  Pole,  on  the  east 
by  the  rising,  and  on  the  west  by  the  setting  sun." 
And  then  the  third  man  said  :  "  Now  let  me  try  :  Here's 
to  the  United  States,  bounded  on  the  north  by  the 
Aurora  Borealis,  on  the  south  by  the  Procession  of  the 
Equinoxes,  on  the  east  by  Primeval  Chaos,  and  on  the 
west  by  the  Day  of  Judgment." 

Well,  those  Americans  were  true  to  their  proclivities ; 
they  were  good  boasters,  and  a  Yankee  who  is  not  a 
boaster  denies  his  birthright.  But  there  was  a  vein  of 
truth  under  all  that,  through  which  is  flowing  a  tide  of 
responsibilities  mighty  and  inescapable,  and  they  who 
are  charged  with  the  work  of  evangelization  do  in  some 
sense  realize  it. 

From  Alaska  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  is  from  the 
Aurora  to  the  Equinox,  and  over  all  that  stretch  of 
earth  we  are  to  spread  the  story  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
in  such  a  way  that  it  shall  command  the  attention  and 
reach  the  hearts  of  those  multitudes  which  enter  yearly 
into  our  valleys  and  prairies  from  European  lands  where 


114  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

poverty  and  oppression,  and  ignorance  and  degradation 
have  reduced  the  souls  of  men  to  a  condition  little 
above  the  state  which  characterizes  "  primeval  chaos," 
and  for  whose  answer  at  the  "  day  of  judgment  "  we  are 
to  be  held  responsible  in  some  measure.  The  vastness 
of  our  domain  and  the  responsibilities  that  it  brings  to 
our  own  Church  makes  it  right  to  say  that  this  is  a 
great  epoch  in  the  history  of  a  great  cause. 

It  is  a  great  epoch  because  it  is  the  beginning  of 
a  new  century  of  work  for  home  missions,  and  almost 
in  point  of  time  co-equal  with  the  opening  of  the  century 
which  will  be  the  greatest  the  world  has  ever  known. 
We  are  celebrating  with  eclat  the  centennial  of  home 
missions.  It  is  a  time  of  hand-shaking,  and  of  speech- 
making,  and  of  rejoicing,  and  of  manifesting  the  Amer- 
ican spirit,  even  in  connection  with  our  assembling  for 
purposes  which  are  only  religious.  The  history  of  the 
one  hundred  years  has  been  told.  Will  you  pardon  me 
if  I  mention,  once  more,  Henry  Kendall  ?  It  can  be  in 
no  way  derogatory  to  any  man  to  say  that  he  was  the 
prince  of  organizers  in  an  era  of  organizing  and  organi- 
zations. I  need  ask  no  pardon  when  I  speak  the  name 
of  Cyrus  Dickson.  There  was  a  great  man,  my  fellow 
Presbyterians.  Some  of  you  even  yet  remember  his 
marvelous  eloquence.  As  orator  for  the  religious  inter- 
ests of  the  Church  of  his  love  he  was  not  surpassed  in 
power  to  sway  assemblies  in  the  whole  past  century,  and 
I  prophesy  that  the  coming  century  will  not  produce 
his  superior,  even  though,  if  by  reason  of  superior  ad- 
vantages, it  does  produce  his  peer.     It  is  no  reflection 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  115 

upon  the  secretaries  of  to-day,  thinking  of  the  century 
past,  to  say,  "  Otlier  men  have  labored  and  ye  have 
entered  into  their  labors." 

One  hundred  years  is  a  small  time  measured  against 
the  two  thousand  years  of  Christian  history  ;  but  gauged 
by  what  those  hundred  years  have  accomplished  in  the 
work  of  world  evangelization,  they  are  the  longest  hun- 
dred years  of  time.  Yea,  longer  than  any  thousand 
years  that  have  preceded  them,  and  the  prophecy  that 
they  make  of  what  the  coming  hundred  years  will  be 
makes  it  right  to  say  that  this  centennial  marks  a  great 
epoch  in  the  history  of  home  missions  in  the  United 
States. 

It  is  a  great  epoch  because  at  this  very  hour 
the  scope  of  home  mission  work  is  changing.  The 
problem  before  the  Church  in  our  country  has  never  ere 
this  been  what  it  is  at  this  moment.  I  think  we  will 
do  well  to  consider  this  matter  with  more  than  ordinary 
attention.  Home  mission  work  at  the  outset  of  the  last 
century  was  one  thing,  and,  while  that  still  remains  an 
interest  that  may  not  be  forgotten,  another  phase  of 
home  mission  work  has  forced  itself  up  into  the  sight 
of  the  Church,  and  must  not  be  left  either  unseen  or 
unnoticed.  The  cause  of  the  changing  scope  of  our 
home  mission  work  is  the  rapid  increase  in  numbers 
of  an  unevangelized  foreign  population  that  represents 
forces  hostile  and  repugnant  to  the  genius  of  American 
civilization.  That  increase  of  a  peculiar  immigrant 
population  sets  before  the  Church,  even  while  we  are 
gathered  here,  a  work  whose  magnitude  is  appalling. 


116  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

That  work  the  Church  must  do;  and  our  Church  must 
do  her  part  of  it  by  her  Boards  of  Home  Missions  and 
of  Publication  and  Sabbath-scliool  Work,  or,  leaving  it 
undone,  be  in  danger  of  submersion  bj  the  inflowing 
wave  of  ignorance,  godlcssness,  and  anarchism.  When 
the  century  opened  we  carried  the  gospel  to  no  Ameri- 
can heathen,  for  we  had  none  save  our  own  American 
Indians,  and  for  too  much  of  the  century  the  love  and 
life  of  Elliott  the  apostle  has  been  forgotten,  and  the 
doctrine  born  of  war — "  The  only  good  Indian  is  a  dead 
Indian  " — has  ruled  in  the  hearts  of  the  masses  of  men. 
But  to-day  our  country  is  being  filled  with  heathen  from 
the  Old  World. 

One  hundred  years  ago  New  England,  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and  Virginia  were  moving 
into  the  valleys  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi  and 
along  the  shore-lines  of  the  great  lakes.  The  missionary 
organizations  of  a  century  ago  had  but  one  object — to  send 
missionaries  in  the  wake  of  migrating  families  that  they 
might  not  get  beyond  the  hearing  of  the  gospel,  and  to 
provide  money  to  help  the  frontiersman  to  build  himself 
a  little  church  in  the  wilderness.  The  Church  followed 
the  pioneer.  The  pioneer  carried  the  axe  and  the  mis- 
sionary carried  the  Bible,  and  out  of  the  work  of  these 
two  has  come  our  magnificent  Christian  civilization. 
The  pioneer  laid  low  the  forest,  and  cleared  the  acres, 
and  planted  the  crops,  but  left  a  place  for  the  rude 
church  edifice  where  the  word  of  God  might  be  preached 
when  the  missionary  should  come.  And  he  always  came. 
With  great  fidelity  the  Board  of  Home  Missions,  then 


CENTENNIAL  OF  HOME  MISSIONS  117 

only  a  feeble  organization,  made  sure  that  he  should  go. 
The  axe  cleared  the  forests  of  the  West,  and  the  Plonie 
Board  made  the  voice  of  the  missionary  heard  after  only 
a  little  while  in  every  clearing.  That  was  home  mis- 
sion work  seventy-five  years  ago.  But  that  work  is 
broadening. 

We  still  are  doing  as  the  pioneer  missionary  did, 
but  not  to  the  exclusion  of  other,  and  even  more  im- 
portant, work.  The  American  pioneer  is  in  the  West 
yet,  but  he  is  not  the  man  from  the  young  East  of  a 
century  ago,  but  his  descendant  born  among  the  moun- 
tains and  the  forests.  To  such  the  Church  is  still  send- 
ing the  gospel,  and  from  such  are  still  going  out  into 
deeper  wilds  those  whom  the  Church  must  follow. 
Yet  so  much  has  been  done  in  the  work  of  reclaiming 
our  territory  for  civilization,  so  magnificent  are  the 
cities  which  have  sprung  up  all  over  that  empire  which 
Marcus  Whitman  saved  to  the  Republic,  that  it  can 
almost  be  said  "  the  wild  and  woolly  West "  has  ceased 
to  be.  A  Theological  Seminary  on  the  Pacific  Coast, 
and  that  one  beyond  the  Mississippi  at  Omaha,  will  be 
sending  ministers  back  into  our  eastern  churches  within 
a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  colleges  that  will  produce 
scholars  the  equal  of  the  best  we  could  make  here  in  the 
first  half  of  the  century  will  mold  the  character  of  our 
whole  vast  western  area.  It  is  still  necessary,  and  for 
a  time  will  be,  to  send  our  money  over  the  Rocky 
Mountains  at  the  rate  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars 
annually.  But  this  will  not  be  for  long.  The  strong 
support  of  the  present  will  soon  develop  all    up  and 


118  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

clown  our  Paeifio  Coast  from  Portland  to  Los  Angeles 
self-supporting  churches  that  will  become  the  sponsors 
for  home  mission  work  in  tiieir  own  bounds.  For 
already  we  are  beginning  to  see  that  the  wave  of  civili- 
zation has  really  Howed  over  the  continent  from  ocean 
to  ocean,  and  that  the  reflow  has  begun.  The  contri- 
bution by  the  First  Church  of  Portland,  Oregon,  of 
more  than  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  the  work 
of  home  missions  proves  that  the  reflow  has  begun. 
Soon  we  as  a  Church  must  turn  our  attention  to  the 
exceptional  populations  in  the  very  centers  where  we 
in  all  the  years  of  the  century  have  been  strongest,  and 
where  we  have  fondly  thought  the  work  of  evangeliza- 
tion was  done.  The  demand  for  home  missionaries  is 
from  our  own  firesides  now ;  for  missionaries  who  can 
speak  the  gospel  in  foreign  tongues.  In  every  great 
industrial  center,  in  every  place  where  wealth  and  power 
have  set  great  manufacturing  enterprises  on  foot,  there 
is  to-day  a  teeming  population — Italian,  Belgian,  Croa- 
tian, Slovak,  Himgarian,  Lithuanian,  Bohemian,  Russian 
— that  can  be  numbered  by  hundreds  of  thousands,  that 
must  be  taught  the  instincts  of  the  American  citizen, 
that  must  be  evangelized  and  civilized,  and  made  to 
understand  that  American  liberty  is  not  grounded  in 
personal  caprice,  or  desire,  or  love  of  license,  but  in  the 
self-denial,  and  sacrifice,  and  surrender  of  each  to  the 
other  for  the  good  of  all,  which  are  the  foundations  of 
our  institutions  and  the  direct  outgrowths  of  our  Chris- 
tianity. The  work  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
United  States  of  America  is  no  longer  a  little  work 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  119 

that  means  the  spending  of  a  few  thousands  of  dollars 
annually  on  the  extension  of  our  Church  into  our  west- 
ern domain  in  order  to  keep  i)ace  with  the  march  of 
migration  from  the  East.  That  work  means  to-day  tlie 
spending  of  hundreds  of  thousands,  yea,  of  millions,  if 
need  be,  as  the  result  of  the  open  door  that  we  have  set 
before  the  nations  of  the  earth.  We  might  as  well  wake 
up  to  the  fact  that  God  has  given  this  nation  mighty 
wealth  to  be  used  for  the  evangelization  of  men,  and  not 
for  spending  alone  in  the  things  that  go  to  beautify  our 
homes  and  satisfy  our  own  desires.  If  there  is  one 
eternal  truth  it  is  this :  this  world's  money  is  God's. 
He  made  its  acquisition  and  possession  possible.  To 
gather  it  is  lawful  :  he  gave  us  the  power  to  do  that 
very  thing ;  to  hoard  it  is  niggardliness  and  unlikeness 
to  God  :  he  dispenses  eternally  with  unsparing  hand ; 
to  squander  it  is  ^vickedness  ;  to  use  it  for  good,  as  one 
walks  over  God's  highway,  is  to  achieve  moral  grandeur. 
We  might  as  well  wake  up  to  the  fact  that  our  Home 
Board  is  soon  to  need  for  its  work  in  a  single  year  not 
one  million  dollars  only,  but  two  or  three  millions,  if 
it  does  the  work  which  God  is  setting  before  us  by  the 
progress  of  emigration.  I  wish  it  were  possible  to  make 
a  missionary  trust  whose  capital  stock  should  be  the 
tithe  of  the  income  of  every  Christian  man  and  woman 
in  America ;  whose  business  should  be  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  our  unevangelized  masses ;  whose  dividends 
should  be  manifest  in  rescued  slums  and  purified  corpo- 
rate purpose,  and  the  cessation  of  vice  and  drunkenness 
and  crime.     I  believe  I  am  safe  in  saying  that  President 


120  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

Roosevelt  and  liis  Attorney  General  would  never  insti- 
tute suit  in  United  States  courts  to  dissolve  that  trust. 

The  work  is  on  us.  God  has  transplanted  the  poor, 
the  oppressed,  the  debased,  the  ignorant,  from  the  govern- 
ments beyond  the  sea,  and  set  them  in  our  cities,  along 
our  river  valleys,  in  our  mountains,  and  upon  our 
prairies.  We  have  given  them  the  advantage  of  liberty, 
and  they  are  among  us  without  a  knowledge  of  its  first 
principles  and  without  a  thought  of  a  spiritual  reli- 
gion. With  hate  in  their  hearts  for  authority,  as  they 
have  known  the  meaning  of  authority  in  the  Old  World, 
and  with  eyes  that  blaze  in  a  wild  desire  for  equalization 
in  property  and  power  with  the  rich  and  prosperous,  by 
whose  side  they  are  placed  by  our  institutions  as  free- 
men in  a  free  state,  they  are  a  menace  to  those  very 
institutions  by  which  they  are  accorded  their  not  yet 
understood  privileges.  The  work  of  the  Church  of 
Christ  in  our  laud  to-day  is  for  the  perpetuity  of  the 
American  Union,  and  one  of  the  factors  in  the  preserva- 
tion of  our  national  liberties  is  the  influence  which  will 
be  wielded  in  the  coming  century  by  the  home  mis- 
sionary preacher  and  teacher.  The  perpetuity  of  the 
American  Republic, — let  us  not  forget  it, — the  Church 
established  and  strong  in  the  domain  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, and  the  Church  to  be  established  and  to  be  strong 
in  the  domain  west  of  the  great  river,  has  but  one  inter- 
est to-day  :  it  is  the  Republic. 

For  the  Republic  is  threatened  by  evils  to  which  the 
Church  must  not  be  oblivious.  Will  you  have  the  in- 
ventory of  them  ?     Commercialism  is  an  evil.     It  does 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  IIISSIONS  121 

not  belong  to  the  great  cities  alone,  but  is  found  wher- 
ever men  congregate  and  tlie  click  of  the  telegraph  is 
heard.  What  does  comnicrcialisni  mean  ?  It  means 
the  opening  of  the  morning  paper  first  by  thousands  on 
thousands  of  men  and  women  and  young  people  out  of 
every  walk  of  life  to  the  columns  where  stock  quotations 
are  found.  It  means  greed.  Can  I  define  it  ?  No  :  but 
I  can  illustrate  it.  Commercialism  is  a  dollar  on  edge 
rolling  away  as  fast  as  it  can  go,  and  a  hundred  men 
and  women  after  it  in  a  wild,  jostling  chase.  That  is 
an  evil.  Socialism  is  an  evil  because  it  is  championed 
by  a  propagandism  utterly  out  of  tune  with  the  key 
note  of  our  history,  and  the  inharmony  of  the  voice  of 
that  propagandism  is  as  discordant  on  the  prairies  west 
of  the  Mississippi  as  it  is  in  the  cities  east  of  the  Alle- 
ghenies. 

Anarchism  is  an  evil  which  grows  directly  out  of  the 
unbridled  passions  of  men  who  are  not  subject  to  the 
gospel  of  Jesus,  and  unbridled  passion  is  dangerous 
everywhere,  whether  in  a  mining  camp  in  Arizona  or 
in  a  hall  in  New  Jersey.  These  evils  grow  out  of  the 
condition  that  has  resulted  from  our  material  develop- 
ment since  the  Civil  War.  With  that  development 
beyond  anything  the  world  ever  saw  made  in  so  short  a 
time  by  one  people,  and  so  rapid  that  we  are  drunk 
with  a  sense  of  our  power ;  with  fortunes  made  in  a 
day  by  youths  and  servants  in  the  wild  whirl  of  the 
stock  exchanges  of  the  country  ;  with  social  standards 
set  up  in  certain  great  urban  centers  that  measure  a  man 
by  his  bank  account,  and  not  by  his  mental  or  moral 


122  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

equipment ;  with  the  money-getting  fever  burning  in 
the  veins  of  all  classes  of  society  and  causing  schemes 
wilder  than  the  wildest  dreams  of  the  financial  experi- 
menteers  of  the  French  Revolution  ;  with  trusts  and  com- 
binations capitalized  at  sums  that  are  incomprehensible 
to  the  ordinary  mind ;  with  secularization  so  controlling 
the  public  school  systems  of  our  nation  that  the  super- 
intendent of  the  schools  of  the  city  of  Chicago,  at  a 
memorial  service  held  for  the  late  President  on  that 
solemn  Thursday  when  he  was  buried,  was  compelled  to 
omit  one  faintest  allusion  to  the  foundation  of  the  char- 
acter of  William  McKinley  as  in  the  w^ord  of  God,  and 
did  not  dare  to  repeat  those  last  utterances  which  have 
endeared  his  memory  more  than  all  else  he  ever  spoke ; 
with  the  political  systems  of  our  cities  rotten  to  the 
core,  and  thieves  openly  claiming  an  income  from  their 
nefariousness  of  from  $4000  to  $25,000  annually  because 
of  the  purchased  protection  of  the  police ;  with  public 
morality  steadily  declining  ;  it  is  high  time  for  the 
Church  to  awake  to  a  sense  of  the  burden  that  is  upon 
her,  and  to  the  fact  that  our  whole  territory  is  mission- 
ary territory,  and  our  whole  people  are  in  need  of  the 
gospel.  These  are  the  considerations  that  make  me  say 
the  scope  of  home  mission  work  is  changing,  and  the 
fact  makes  this  a  great  epoch  in  home  mission  history. 

I  said  the  Church  has  but  one  interest  to-day.  I 
repeat  that :  that  one  interest  is  the  Republic.  The 
American  people  must  be  a  Christian  people  if  they  are 
to  remain  as  the  leaders  of  the  liberties  of  the  world. 
But  let  me  prevent  anyone  thinking  there  is  a  pessimist's 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  123 

heart  under  that  sentiment.  I  do  not  despair  of  the 
Republic,  because  I  do  not  despair  of  God.  While 
God  lives  to  raise  up  missionaries  to  live  and  love  and 
die  as  our  home  missionaries  have  lived  and  loved  and 
died  in  the  century  gone  by,  we  need  not  despair  of  the 
Republic.  Think  of  the  amazing,  the  unparalleled  devo- 
tion of  the  men  who  have  borne  the  old  blue  banner  to 
the  Rockies  and  beyond.  "  There  are  ministers  educated 
as  well  as  the  best  of  us  who  are  living  almost  as  if 
buried  in  primeval  forests,  sixty,  seventy,  one  hundred 
miles  from  the  railroads,  and  who  work  year  in  and 
year  out  for  less  money  than  would  satisfy  a  Pennsylva- 
nia miner."  A  home  missionary  from  Idaho  said  to  me 
in  my  study  a  week  ago,  "  You  think  out  here  that  Ralph 
Connor's  Black  Rock  and  Sl'y  Pilot  are  only  stories 
spun  from  a  man's  brain.  They  are  not.  They  are 
pictures  of  what  has  been  going  on  for  a  half  century 
over  our  whole  far  western  domain.  Many  a  man  has 
died  as  the  Sky  Pilot  died,  beloved  and  bewailed  with  a 
great  lamentation."  You  heard  Dr.  E.  P.  Hill  tell 
yesterday  with  great  power  of  the  work  done  beyond 
the  Rocky  Mountains.  Dr.  Hill's  predecessor  of  long 
ago,  the  pioneer  of  that  home  mission  church,  rode 
eighty  miles  twice  a  month  to  preach  to  the  handful  of 
people  that  was  known  then  and  is  yet  as  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church  of  Portland,  Oregon.  Ah  !  but 
that  work  paid.  It  is  a  handful  of  people  no  longer, 
but  the  splendid  church  that  has  given  in  its  history 
$100,000  to  home  missions,  and  has  given  one  of  its 
pastors  for  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 


124  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

and  another  to  lead  yonr  thought  in  the  closing  hour  of 
the  great  celebration  yesterday. 

You  sat  for  the  first  day  of  this  Assembly  under  the 
direction  of  the  Moderator  of  the  last  General  Assembly, 
Dr.  Minton,  of  the  Presbytery  of  San  Francisco.  Go 
with  me  in  thought  to  a  little  room  in  California.  In 
it  we  shall  find  gathered  the  whole  Presbytery  of  San 
Francisco,  three  members,  solemnly  transacting  business 
on  one  side  of  the  stove,  and  one  of  the  members  is 
rocking  the  baby's  cradle  with  his  foot  while  he  ar- 
ranges presbyterial  documents  with  his  hands,  and 
over  on  the  other  side  of  the  stove  his  wife  is  cooking 
the  dinner.  That  was  the  organization  which  in  time 
was  to  give  to  the  General  Assembly  sitting  in  the  old- 
est Presbyterian  city  of  the  United  States  in  the  last 
year  of  the  first  century  of  home  missions  its  first  Mod- 
erator for  the  twentieth  century. 

Think  of  a  man  selling  his  farm  and  moving  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-five  miles  to  make  a  new  home,  that 
thus  he  might  give  to  his  family  the  religious  privilege 
of  a  home  mission  church.  While  such  men  live 
religion  will  not  die  in  the  United  States.  No ;  I  do 
not  despair  of  the  Republic.  It  will  not  die  while  such 
work  by  such  a  church  shall  go  on.  And  it  will  go  on. 
There  is  no  stopping  it.  You  may  give  your  money  in 
large  sums  :  it  will  go  on.  Yon  may  give  your  money 
in  paltry  driblets  of  sums  :  it  will  go  on.  With  money 
or  without  it,  it  will  go  on.  There  was  a  time  nineteen 
hundred  years  ago  when  this  work  of  saving  a  country 
began.     The  work   begun  in  Galilee  by  the  Naznrene 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  125 

was  in  poverty  but  in  power.  "  Silver  and  gold  have  I 
none  "  has  been  the  cry  of  many  a  successor  of  Peter. 
But  the  work  has  gone  right  on.  If  it  shall  still  have 
to  go  on  in  poverty  be  sure  it  will  still  go  on  in  power. 
There  is  no  stopping  it :  God  is  behind  it,  and  that 
behind  which  God  is  goes  on. 


ADDRESS  ON  BEHALF  OF  THE  BOARD  OF 
HOME  MISSIONS 


BY   THE 


REV.  JOHN  DIXON,  D.  D.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
(Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions) 


It  has  fallen  to  my  lot  to  bring  to  this  General 
Assembly  the  hearty  greetings  of  the  officers  and  mem- 
bers of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions.  We  are  grateful 
to  our  divine  Master  for  his  favor  to  us  and  to  the  work 
committed  to  us  during  the  year  that  is  gone  and 
during  all  the  years  of  the  past.  We  seek  anew  the 
sympathy  and  fervent  prayers  of  the  Church,  that  in 
the  administration  of  the  supreme  trust  committed  to 
the  Board  of  Home  Missions  there  may  be  fidelity, 
wisdom,  an  unwavering  faith,  and  a  brightening  hope. 

This  is  the  centennial  year  of  the  organized  work  of 
missions  in  our  own  land.  Yesterday  we  had  the  rare 
])rivilege  of  listening  to  three  addresses  which  set  forth 
in  eloquent  and  stirring  tones  the  progress  of  home 
missions  from  the  Atlantic  Seaboard  to  the  Pacific  Coast. 
It  is  a  glorious  history  which  should  forever  dissipate 
any  feeling  of  doubt  or  of  discouragement.  It  gives  us 
greatest  cheer  and  brightest  hope  for  the  days  that  are 

126 


CENTENNIAL  OF  HOME  MISSIONS  127 

to  come.     The  God  of  our  fathers  is  our  God,  and  will 
be  the  God  of  our  children  to  the  remotest  generation. 

We  have  just  listened  to  the  report  of  the  Assembly's 
committee  on  Home  Missions,  and  the  stirring  address 
of  the  chairman.  A  new  note  of  encouragement  has 
been  struck,  and  gratitude  deepens  while  faith  grows 
stronger.  To-night,  under  the  welcome  encouragement 
of  the  presence  and  greetings  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  we  shall  study  afresh  the  way  by  which 
God  has  made  us  a  great  nation,  and  take  a  look  into 
the  future,  so  that  we  may  gird  ourselves  anew  for  the 
sublime  work  of  evangelizing  America.  America  is  to 
take  up  the  "  white  man's  burden  "  and  do  the  largest 
part  of  the  work  in  evangelizing  and  civilizing  the 
whole  world. 

SHADOWS  UPON  THE  YEAR 

During  the  past  year  shadows  deep  and  dark  have 
fallen  upon  our  pathway,  and  our  hearts  are  sad  over 
the  taking  away  of  trusted  and  beloved  leaders  from 
our  council  and  cooperation.  The  death  of  Dr.  Purves, 
who  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Board  shortly  after 
he  became  pastor  of  this  church,  was  the  first  great  loss 
of  the  year.  His  predecessor.  Dr.  John  Hall,  was  for 
twenty-seven  years  a  member  of  the  Board  and  for 
eighteen  years  its  president.  It  was  his  custom  to 
attend  every  meeting  of  the  Assembly  and  to  preside 
at  the  annual  meeting  in  the  interests  of  home  missions. 
We  shall  not  soon  forget  his  splendid  presence  and  his 
supreme  address  on  those  occasions.  We  thus  feel  that 
in  this  strong  and  influential  congregation  the  cause  of 


128  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

home  missions  has  special  sympathy  and  support. 
The  coming  of  Dr.  Purves  strengthened  this.  When 
it  was  proposed  to  celebrate  the  centennial  of  home 
missions  we  naturally  turned  to  this  church.  We  are 
here  met  by  his  invitation  and  that  of  the  session,  but 
he  himself  has  gone,  gone  from  service  to  reward,  from 
earth  to  heaven.  We  rejoice  that  in  the  present  pastor 
the  cause  of  home  missions  has  such  an  earnest  friend 
and  strong  supporter,  and  we  are  confident  that  the  good 
work  which  has  been  carried  on  here  for  many  a  year 
will  be  maintained  and  increased  in  the  days  to  come. 

But  the  afflicting  hand  of  our  God  was  laid  upon  us 
again  most  heavily  when  he  recently  removed  from 
us  Mrs.  Frederick  H.  Pierson,  the  secretary  of  the 
Woman's  Board.  She  was  a  woman  of  deepest  conse- 
cration and  of  great  natural  and  spiritual  gifts.  Her 
loss  is  well  nigh  irreparable.  She  was  a  leader  of  great 
wisdom,  exhaustless  energy,  clear  vision,  and  broad 
sympathy.  The  work  which  is  done  by  the  officers  of 
the  Board  before  an  audience  and  in  the  sight  of  the 
Church  is  important,  but  much  more  difficult  and  of 
greater  importance  is  that  which  is  done  round  the 
conference  table  in  the  office  of  the  secretary.  There 
plans  are  laid,  problems  solved,  difficulties  overcome,  of 
which  the  Church  knows  only  the  result,  but  cannot 
know  the  time,  thought,  prayer,  and  ability  necessary 
to  secure  that  result.  At  these  conferences  Mrs.  Pier- 
son  was  wise,  sympathetic,  far-seeing  to  a  marked 
degree,  and  every  day  makes  us  realize  with  increasing 
emphasis  how  great  is  our  loss. 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  129 

The  treasurer  reports  that  he  has  received  during  the 
past  year  for  the  current  work  of  home  missions  the 
sum  of  $803,662.9G.  If  to  this  sum  be  added  the 
amount  received  by  the  synods  administering  their 
own  home  mission  work,  which  sum  so  far  as  reported 
to  us  amounts  to  $136,632.90,  we  have  a  total  of 
$940,295.86.  The  treasurer  is  able  to  report  that  all 
the  obligations  of  the  Board  of  Home  JNIissions  have 
been  met,  and  that  there  remains  in  his  hands  a  balance 
of  $4586.82.  This  is  the  fourth  successive  year  that  he 
has  been  able  to  report  no  debt.  Not  since  the  reunion 
in  1870  has  the  Home  Board  been  enabled  to  come  to 
the  Assembly  with  such  a  record.  It  speaks  volumes 
for  the  skill  and  ability  of  our  treasurer  whose  praise  I 
am  glad  to  speak. 

Of  the  total  sum  of  $803,662.96  received  during  the 
year,  $339,526.38  was  obtained  by  the  Woman's  Board. 
This  shows  an  increase  of  receipts  upon  that  of  last 
year  which  amounts  to  $57,778;  of  this  sum  %A':),12bA2 
is  to  be  credited  to  the  Woman's  Board  and  $8,032.87 
as  the  advance  made  by  the  Home  Board. 

ANALYSIS  OF  THE  EECEIPTS 

A  still  further  analysis  of  the  receipts  of  the  Home 
Board  starts  some  very  interesting  questions.  We  find 
that  the  congregational  offerings  have  increased  onlv 
$1966.  In  this  advance,  though  small,  we  rejoice,  for 
our  main  source  of  dependence,  after  all,  must  be  from 
the  congregational  offerings.  The  societies  of  the 
Church,  including  the  Sabbath  schools  and  the  Youno- 
9 


130  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

Peoples'  Societies,  show  a  loss,  as  compared  witli  that  of 
last  year,  of  $1385.  This  loss  is  wholly  in  the  receipts 
from  the  Sunday  schools.  Taking  then  the  offerings 
from  the  churches  and  all  of  the  organizations  within 
the  Church,  we  find  that  the  advance  for  the  past  year 
is  $581.  This  statement  is  made  with  a  view  to  arrest 
the  attention  of  the  churches  to  a  serious  fact.  Why  is 
it  that  our  churches  grow  in  membership  and  in  wealth 
and  do  not  make  corresponding  progress  in  their  gifts  to 
missions  ?  The  pastors  may  not  plead  that  the  societies 
within  the  Church  are  making  marked  progress  in  their 
gifts  so  that  a  less  rapid  progress  should  justly  be  ex- 
pected from  the  Church  oiferings.  The  suggestive  fact 
is  that  we  are  making  progress  so  slowly  that  it  is  im- 
perative either  that  new  plans  should  be  devised  by 
pastors  or,  Avhat  is  better,  that  there  shall  be  a  baptism 
upon  both  minister  and  people. 

We  have  had  more  than  usual  difficulty  in  deciding 
upon  the  appropriations  to  the  presbyteries  for  the  com- 
ing year.  The  amount  just  voted  by  the  Board  is 
$378,360,  which  is  $22,043  more  than  was  appro- 
priated last  year,  and  yet  is  $46,160  less  than  the 
presbyteries  asked  for  after  they  had  cut  and  scaled  all 
that  they  dared  to  do  or  thought  possible.  But  are  we 
warranted  in  making  an  advance  of  $22,000  ?  Not  if 
we  are  to  judge  solely  by  the  contributions  of  last  year. 
We  put  faith  in  larger  hope.  We  arc  not  unmindful  of 
the  promise  given  by  the  Board  to  the  Church  four  years 
ago,  that  the  trust  committed  to  us  would  be  so  admin- 
istered as  that  no  large  debt  would  be  incurred.     AVe 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  131 

intent]  to  be  faithful  to  our  pledge ;  yet  we  cannot  help 
but  feel  that  when  the  mind  and  conscience  and  heart 
of  tlie  Church  are  confronted  with  the  figures  I  have 
just  given,  there  will  be  a  greater  consecration  of  gifts. 
The  responsibility  is  a  mutual  one  ;  it  does  not  rest 
wholly  upon  the  Board.  The  pastors  and  elders  must 
do  their  whole  duty  in  instructing  the  people  and  per- 
suading them  to  a  full  discharge  of  their  duty.  Thia 
centennial  year  which  recalls  the  glorious  things  which 
God  has  wrought  for  our  Church  and  country  will  surely 
awaken  gratitude,  supply  courage,  and  bring  a  new  and 
greater  devotion. 

NO  DISAPPOINTMENT  SEEN 

Our  faith  and  hope  will  not  be  disappointed.  We  are 
confident  that  although  we  have  taken  this  step  in  ad- 
vance the  Church  will  respond,  and  next  year,  even  as 
during  these  last  years,  the  treasurer  will  report  all  obli- 
gations met  and  a  balance  in  the  treasury.  With  regard 
to  the  synods  carrying  on  their  own  home  mission  work, 
it  is  not  mine  to  speak  other  than  to  say  that  the  Board 
follows  them  with  the  deepest  interest  and  cordial  ap- 
proval ;  would  that  there  were  more  of  them.  During 
the  past  year  INIichigan  has  undertaken  self-support.  It 
will  be  no  holiday  task,  but  she  has  entered  upon  it  after 
such  carefulness  of  plan  as  well  as  heartiness  of  devo- 
tion that  she  is  bound  to  succeed.  The  synod  makes 
the  treasurer  of  the  Board  its  treasurer,  who  makes  sepa- 
rate deposit  of  the  money  committed  to  him.  That  is 
done  without  expense  to  the  synod.     It  is  the  purpose 


132  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

of  the  churches  in  Michigan  to  keep  up  their  contribu- 
tions to  the  general  work  of  the  Church,  and  while  the 
Board  may  not  expect  as  large  sums  as  it  has  received 
in  the  past,  it  is  especially  gratified  that  the  tie  which 
binds  the  synod  to  the  work  of  the  whole  Church  is 
to  be  close  and  binding. 

Nebraska  has  devised  a  plan  of  cooperation  with  the 
Board  which  is  not  yet  fully  matured,  but  which  prom- 
ises excellent  results. 

We  are  much  pleased  to  report  to  the  Assembly  that 
thirty  churches  ask  for  less  this  year  than  they  received 
last  year.  This  is  by  no  means  the  only  or  even  the 
main  test  of  progress,  but  it  is  a  good  sign.  This  ad- 
vance has  been  brought  about  in  many  instances  by  the 
diligent  endeavors  of  the  home  mission  committees 
and  the  pastors,  and  in  too  many  instances  at  the  per- 
sonal expense  of  the  pastor.  While  we  are  compelled 
to  admire  such  devotion  on  the  part  of  insufficiently 
paid  missionaries,  yet  we  do  not  commend  and  cannot 
encourage  it  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  Church  as  a 
whole  and  the  local  church  should  do  their  full  share 
of  providing  the  necessary  funds  and  leaving  pastors  to 
contribute  only  their  proper  proportion.  A  year  ago 
we  thought  we  were  hitching  our  wagon  to  a  star  of 
the  first  magnitude  when  we  suggested  that  in  this  cen- 
tennial year  we  hoped  we  might  be  fortunate  enough  to 
report  100  churches  to  this  Assembly  as  having  reached 
self-support.  If  we  had  had  a  few  more  days  in  which 
to  receive  reports  I  doubt  not  the  full  100  would  have 
been  reached.     We  are  glad  to  say  that  89  have  bidden 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  133 

us  an  affect  lonate  but  not  tearfnl  farewell,  have  (|iiit 
"  hoarding  "  and  started  housekeeping,  so  as  not  only  to 
care  for  their  own  but  also  to  provide  help  for  the 
church  that  has  need.  But  more  than  progress  in  finan- 
cial strength,  and  even  better  than  attaining  to  self-sup- 
port, is  the  spiritual  record  of  the  year.  God  has  been 
pleased  to  pour  out  his  spirit  upon  scores  and  hundreds 
of  missionary  cliurches  and  many  souls  have  been  con- 
verted to  God  and  have  confessed  Christ.  This  is  the 
goal  of  all  our  labors,  for  which  the  minister  of  Jesus 
Christ  can  well  afford  to  be  poor  and  lonely,  suffer  hard- 
ship, and  even  endure  persecution. 

BLESSINGS  IN  POKTO  EICO 

So  far  as  my  personal  observation  goes,  the  field  which 
has  been  most  wonderfully  blessed  in  the  winning  of 
souls  to  Christ  is  in  Porto  Rico.  There  during  the  last 
few  months  many  persons  have  been  received  on  confes- 
sion of  faith.  May  I  describe  a  communion  season  there 
in  which  I  was  greatly  privileged  to  take  a  part  ?  The 
session,  consisting  of  the  pastor  and  three  elders,  were 
holding  meetings  to  examine  applicants  for  admission  to 
the  Lord's  table.  I  was  present  at  most  of  these  meet- 
ings. Though  not  understanding  a  word  of  the  language 
spoken,  I  was  deeply  interested  in  each  case.  Some 
Avere  rejected.  I  was  eager  to  inquire  the  reason.  In 
most  cases  it  was  because  they  did  not  clearly  under- 
stand the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  or  Luther's 
doctrine  of  the  standing  or  falling  church.  Another  dif- 
ficulty was  that  they  would  pray  to  the  Virgin  Mary. 


134  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

Such  were  asked  to  wait  until  they  were  better  in- 
structed. On  the  evening  of  the  Lord's  day,  in  a  hirge 
room  which  had  been  used  as  a  warehouse,  the  people 
met  for  the  observance  of  the  Lord's  supper.  The  clerk 
of  the  session  called  the  roll  of  membership,  and  each 
person  answered  "  presente,"  and  came  and  took  his  or 
her  place  before  the  pulpit.  This  was  done  until  the 
space  was  filled  and  then  the  elements  were  passed.  In 
that  circle  of  communicants  I  noticed  not  only  the  well 
dressed,  but  men  and  women  barefooted,  men  with  no 
other  pfarment  but  shirt  and  trousers.  Awe  and  rever- 
ence  marked  every  face,  and  joy  lighted  up  every  coun- 
tenance. I  was  deeply  impressed  as  an  elder  of  more 
than  seventy  years  of  age,  small  of  stature  and  spare  of 
form,  with  a  fiice  of  marked  intelligence  and  deep  spirit- 
uality, received  the  bread  and  wine  from  the  minister 
and  gave  them  to  the  people.  I  never  saw  greater  cliarm 
of  manner  or  humility  of  bearing,  with  a  dignity  that 
was  most  noble. 

TRULY   A   HEAVENLY  SCENE 

I  was  touched  almost  to  tears  by  the  spirituality  and 
heavenliness  of  the  whole  scene.  Row  after  row  of 
communicants  came  forward,  answering  to  their  names, 
until  115  or  more  had  partaken  of  the  Lord's  supper. 
The  room  was  full  of  spectators,  the  street  was  lined 
with  eager  listeners,  and  the  inmates  of  the  houses  oppo- 
site were  watching  the  scene  with  deepest  interest. 
When  all  was  over,  I  turned  to  the  minister  and  said 
to   him  :  "  Tell  me  about  your  old  elder,  for  I  have 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  135 

fallen  desperately  in  love  with  him.  Plow  did  he  come 
to  Christ?"  Tlie  minister  said  that  he  belonged  to  one 
of  the  prominent  families  in  that  community.  His 
mother  had  been  a  devoted  Catholic,  and  on  her  dying 
bed  turned  to  her  son  and  said  to  him  :  "  I  am  about 
to  die,  and  I  have  one  last  and  great  favor  to  ask  of 
you."  "What  is  it,  my  mother?"  said  this  good  man. 
She  told  him,  "  I  want  you  to  take  my  crucifix,  which 
I  value  so  highly,  and  burn  a  candle  before  it  and  pray 
for  the  repose  of  my  soul."  He  gladly  promised  and 
faithfully  kept  his  vow  until  his  eyes  were  opened  to 
see  that  Jesus  Christ  was  the  only  and  all-sufficient 
Saviour.  Having  accepted  Christ  as  his  divine  Saviour 
and  Master,  he  brought  this  crucifix,  which  was  so  pre- 
cious to  him  by  reason  of  its  being  the  property  of  his 
dead  mother,  and  said  to  the  minister  :  "  I  cannot  longer 
do  what  I  have  promised  my  mother  to  do.  I  see  it  is 
all  wrong.  But  I  cannot  destroy  this  crucifix  for  my 
dear  mother's  sake.  I  have  brought  it  to  you  that  you 
may  destroy  it  and  that  I  may  simply  do  the  will  of 
Jesus."  There  could  have  been  no  severer  test,  for  per- 
secution would  have  been  a  small  matter  to  such  a  man 
compared  with  the  necessity  of  refusing  longer  to  obey  the 
dying  request  of  the  mother  whom  he  loved  devotedly. 

TRIBUTE   TO   THE   EVANGELISTIC   COMMITTEE 

In  this  connection  it  is  a  pleasing  duty  to  pay  hearty 
tribute  to  the  work  of  the  Evangelistic  Committee  of 
the  Assembly,  of  which  Mr.  John  H.  Converse  is  chair- 
man.    The  work  of  the  Committee  and  of  the  Board 


136  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

not  only  Hos  along  parallel  lines,  bnt  in  many  places 
and  })artieiilars  it  overlaps.  With  the  limited  resonrces 
both  of  men  and  money  at  our  command,  the  Board  has 
been  engaged  in  this  work  from  the  beginning.  We 
have  been  painfully  aware  both  of  the  supreme  impor- 
tance of  the  evangelistic  services  and  of  the  utter  inade- 
quacy of  the  means  at  our  disposal  to  overtake  it.  We 
heartily  rejoice  in  the  good  work  which  has  been  done 
by  the  Assembly's  Committee  and  bid  them  "  God- 
speed." From  every  part  of  the  field  come  encouraging 
reports  of  the  good  Avork  done  luider  the  auspices  of  the 
committees  of  presbyteries  charged  with  this  duty. 
There  are,  so  to  speak,  three  great  departments  of  such 
work.  First,  among  the  mission  churches  where  a 
week's  evangelistic  services,  under  the  leadership  of 
reliable  and  trained  ministers,  would  ordinarily  be  of 
inestimable  blessing  to  such  churches.  It  would  increase 
membership,  develop  resources,  and  speed  progress 
along  every  line.  Second,  such  work  needs  to  be  done 
among  the  strong  churches,  either  singly  or  in  groups, 
and  especially  do  such  churches  in  the  large  cities  need 
to  be  brought  into  direct  contact  with  the  work  of  saving 
souls.  Third,  there  is  the  vast  multitude  of  the  un- 
churched, who  only  in  rare  instances  can  be  prevailed 
upon  to  cross  the  threshold  of  a  church.  The  gospel 
must  be  taken  to  these  vast  multitudes  in  the  tent  or  in 
the  hall,  and  the  summer  season  is  especially  fitted  for 
just  such  services.  We  shall  rejoice  to  cooperate  with 
the  Assembly's  committee  in  this  work  of  far-reaching 
importance  in  every  way  in  our  power. 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  3nSSI0NS  137 

FAITHFUL  WORK  OF  THE  MISSIONARIES 

In  speaking  of  the  work  in  general,  we  must  be  per- 
mitted to  refer  to  the  annual  report,  where,  setting  forth 
as  best  we  can  what  has  been  done,  it  is  only  too  mani- 
fest what  a  brief  and  imperfect  tale  has  been  told.  But 
the  Church  will  not  fail  to  honor  nor  forget  to  pray  for 
the  home  missionary.  Every  missionary  is  worthy  of 
special  honor  as  the  elect  from  among  the  elect,  called 
of  God  and  the  Church  to  go  to  the  front  where  dangers 
are  greatest,  burdens  are  heaviest,  and  difficulties  hard- 
est to  overcome.  But  the  home  missionary  is  worthy 
of  preeminent  honor.  There  is  nothing  of  romance 
about  his  work,  no  farewell  meetings,  no  cheer  of 
recognition.  He  is  the  poorest  paid  of  all  the  ministers 
who  stand  upon  our  Assembly's  roll,  not  because  his 
abilities  or  needs  are  less  than  that  of  any  other  minister 
or  missionary,  but  for  quite  other  reasons.  One  of  these 
is  an  inheritance  which  has  come  down  to  us  through  two 
centuries.  In  those  early  days  which  antedate  the  work 
of  foreign  missions  by  130  years,  the  Church  in  her 
poverty  could  not  offer  even  a  living  salary. 

Yet  noble  men  responded  to  the  earnest  appeals  to 
"  Go,  spread  the  Gospel  of  Christ  in  the  dark  regions 
of  the  world,  in  the  province  of  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  and  the  territories  of  Maryland  and  Vir- 
ginia." They  took  the  beggarly  allowance  granted 
them,  and  went  forth  cheerfully  to  found  such  churches 
as  the  First  Presbyterian  Churches  of  New  York  and 
Chicago.  The  habit  of  making  inadequate  support  has 
been  formed  by  the  Church.     But  the  Church  might  be 


1,38  CE2^TENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

fured  of  this  Avere  it  not  for  the  missionaries  themselves. 
Their  self-denial  and  sacrifices  arc  wonders  of  grace. 
It  appears  every  year  in  some  of  them  insisting  upon 
reducing  their  own  meager  salaries  so  that  some  call  for 
new  work  might  be  heeded.  Tlie  work  grows  faster 
than  the  provision  for  it,  but  it  grows  at  the  cost  of  the 
home  missionary  more  than  it  does  by  the  gifts  of  the 
prosperous.  Poverty  is  thus  the  everyday  experience 
of  the  home  missionary,  and  this  is  a  hard  world  to  be 
in  with  little  or  no  money.  There  is  even  a  heavier 
trial  than  that  of  poverty  ;  it  is  the  burden  of  loneliness. 
How  very  lonely  many  of  them  are,  as  not  only  weeks 
but  months  come  and  go  without  their  having  the  cheer 
of  good  fellowship.  At  the  meeting  of  one  of  our 
western  presbyteries  the  home  missionary  had  to  travel 
from  his  home  to  the  place  where  the  presbytery  met  a 
distance  of  1044  miles,  and  going  and  returning  to 
attend  synod  this  same  brother  had  to  travel  978  miles, 
and  another  missionary  had  994  miles  to  cover  in  going 
and  returning.  AVhy  do  home  missionaries  having  a 
small  salary  go  on  such  long  and  expensive  journeys? 
The  reason  is  a  twofold  one.  In  their  loneliness  and 
homesickness  they  want  to  look  into  the  face  and  hear 
the  voice  of  a  fellow-minister.  They  are  deeply  in- 
terested in  knowing  at  first  hand  the  conditions  and 
prospects  of  the  Lord's  work.  Some  of  them  are 
heroic.  When  I  think  of  Marsh  and  S])riggs  at  Point 
Barrow  within  the  Arctic  Circle,  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Kirk 
in  their  lonely  abode  at  Eagle  City  on  the  Yukon,  and 
of  Koonce,  as  he  travels  with  his  dogs  a  thousand  miles 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  139 

to  carry  the  gospel  to  the  miner,  1  think  of  men  who 
are  making  unspeakable  sacrifices  for  Jesus  Christ  and 
tlieir  fellow-men.  They  are  wx)rthy  of  affectionate 
regard  and  of  highest  admiration. 

VAST  TERRITORY  AND  IMPERATIVE  NEED 

I  shall  not  attempt  a  narrative  of  the  great,  though 
for  the  most  part  quiet  and  uneventful,  work  which  has 
been  done  by  missionaries  in  churches  and  mission 
stations  and  preaching  places  in  the  middle  and  further 
AYest.  Nor  shall  I  speak  of  the  increasingly  important 
work  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  stretching  from  Puget  Sound 
in  the  north  to  southern  California.  The  vastness  of 
this  territory  and  the  imperative  need  of  this  field,  with 
its  far-reaching  influence  on  the  Orient,  it  is  impossible 
to  overestimate. 

Of  the  work  in  Alaska  time  would  fail  me  to  speak. 
Here  is  an  empire  out  of  whose  territory  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Agriculture  says  that  four  States  can  be  carved. 
Its  population  is  growing  wdth  marked  rapidity,  while  it  is 
practically  an  unknown  country  to  the  mass  of  our  people. 

The  story  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  is  a  thrilling  tale, 
revealing  at  once  the  dire  need  of  these  islands  and  the 
great  responsiveness  of  the  people  to  the  ajipeal  of  the 
missionary.  Nor  would  the  story  be  complete  without 
the  record  of  our  work  among  the  exceptional  popula- 
tions as  they  are  called.  There  is  no  more  interesting 
work  for  the  Master  than  that  being  done  among  the 
Indians.  Grace  has  Avrought  wonderfully,  and  some  of 
the   noblest   of    Christian   characters  are   to  be  found 


140  CENTENNIAL  OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

anionic  the  red  men.  We  have  l)e_<i:un  work  among  the 
Navajoes  in  Arizona.  Tiie  Rev.  INlr.  J^ierkcmper  has 
gone  to  that  tribe  of  25,000  strong  in  Arizona,  and  from 
his  zeal  and  devotion  we  are  confident  of  good  results.  A 
training  school  has  been  opened  at  Albuquerque,  under 
the  charge  of  the  Rev.  H.  C.  Thomson,  which  we  are  con- 
fident will  in  time  be  a  fountain  of  richest  blessing  to  the 
Mexican  and  Indian  peoples  of  that  part  of  the  country. 
But  a  word  of  good  cheer  must  be  spoken  to  the  mis- 
sionary and  the  missionary  teacher  in  Utah  and  the  Mor- 
mon communities.  There  is  no  harder  missionary  field 
on  earth.  Mormonism  is  the  latest  and  perhaps  the 
greatest  of  Satan's  devices  to  destroy  men's  souls.  Under 
the  guise  and  form  of  religion  are  presented  to  men  the 
gratification  of  fleshly  lusts,  the  greed  of  gain,  and  a 
heaven  of  happiness  and  reward  after  death.  It  is  not 
only  a  religious  and  moral  problem,  but  a  political  creed. 
The  Mormon  Church  controls  both  political  parties  and 
the  public  press  in  Utah.  It  is  working  assiduously  to 
obtain  the  balance  of  political  power  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  and  is  making  rapid  progress  toward  it. 
The  testimony  of  Christian  people  to  the  existence  and 
spread  of  polygamy  is  disregarded  by  Congress,  the 
press,  and  the  people  of  the  country,  and  the  earnest 
aj^peals  for  a  constitutional  amendment  fall  upon  deaf 
Congressional  ears  and  are  treated  with  scorn  by  the  press 
of  the  country.  But  God  grant  a  day  of  grace  to  that 
benighted  people,  and  save  the  Church  and  the  country 
from  the  foul  and  fatal  contamination  with  their  blas- 
phemous and  abominable  doctrines. 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  141 

DUTY  OF  THE  CHURCH 

And  now,  in  closing,  permit  me  to  present  the  need  of 
our  country  and  the  duty  of  the  Church  regarding  it. 
This  can  be  done  in  outline  merely,  and  that  only  by 
\vay  of  suggestion.  It  may  be  presented  under  a  three- 
fold division.  First :  Enlargement  of  the  work.  There 
are  several  departments,  so  to  speak,  which  call  for 
special  and  immediate  attention.  The  large  influx  of 
population  into  Oklahoma,  where  50,000  persons  on  a 
given  day  in  last  August  took  possession  of  the  land 
upon  the  proclamation  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  The  fact  that  this  spring  200,000  people  are 
entering  the  Dakotas,  taking  up  land  and  creating  vil- 
lages and  towns  almost  by  magic  ;  the  rapid  growth  of 
all  sections  of  the  State  of  Washington,  all  press  upon 
t\\G^  Board  of  Home  Missions  for  immediate  and  gener- 
ous attention.  Then  there  is  the  work  in  Cuba  and 
Porto  Eico.  The  duty  is  ours.  The  call  is  "Go 
work  in  my  vineyard."  Every  day's  delay  only  mul- 
tiplies and  makes  the  work  more  difficult.  Hitherto  we 
have  carried  on  our  work  in  these  islands  by  special 
contributions,  without  drawing  upon  the  gifts  of  the 
churches  for  the  general  work  of  the  Board ;  but  these 
are  utterly  insufficient. 

While  we  are  more  than  glad  to  encourage  individuals 
and  churches  to  take  up  specially  the  work  in  these 
islands,  it  is  extremely  important  that  we  be  not  limited 
to  such  gifts.  The  Church  generally  ought  to  have  a 
part  in  this  service.  Then  we  have  a  large  field  almost 
untouched.     I  refer  to  the  foreigners,  especially  those 


142  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

who  are  of  alien  speech  and  opposed  to  our  form  of  gov- 
ernment; who  are  without  religion  and  without  God. 
Who  would  have  been  so  bold  as  to  suppose  last  Sep- 
tember that  it  would  have  been  possible  for  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  to  have  been  deliberately 
murdered  by  the  hand  of  one  of  these  people  ?  Surely 
such  a  lesson  was  scarcely  needed  to  arouse  the  Church 
to  a  sense  of  her  responsibility  for  the  welfare  of  the 
millions  within  our  borders  who  have  no  gospel  and 
no  Sabbath  and  no  minister  of  Jesus  Christ.  We  are 
building  both  our  commercial  and  political  house  over 
dynamite.  Need  we  be  justly  surprised  if  some  day 
there  will  be  an  explosion  which  will  wreck  everything? 
Legislation  is  undoubtedly  needed  for  the  protection 
of  the  person  of  the  President  and  others  in  authority. 
But  we  know  that  no  law,  not  even  the  divine  law, 
much  less  human  law,  can  make  these  men  good  or 
bring  them  into  the  fellowship  of  righteousness  and  of 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  Christ.  We  are  doing  prac- 
tically nothing.  The  Church  must  be  aroused,  and 
what  word  can  be  spoken  which  will  challenge  the  atten- 
tion of  the  people  and  persuade  them  to  this  supreme 
service  ?  There  are  a  million  Jews  in  the  country,  and 
all  that  your  Board  of  Home  Missions  is  doing  for 
God's  ancient  peojile  is  to  pay  the  salary  of  one  mission- 
ary to  the  Jews  in  the  city  of  San  Francisco.  The  first 
great  controversy  in  the  Christian  church  was  over  this 
question,  "  Can  God  and  will  God  save  a  Gentile  upon 
the  same  terms  as  he  is  willing  to  save  a  Jew  ?"  The 
ajiostles  and  brethren  decided  that  God  was  no  respecter 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  143 

of  persons,  and  that  the  Gentile  as  well  as  the  Jew  can 
be  saved  through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  But  now  the 
church  of  the  Gentile  doubts  the  possibility  of  God 
saving  the  Jew,  and  is  quite  indifferent  to  whether  he 
knows  about  the  Messiah  or  not.  A  generous  Presby- 
terian in  Ohio  has  offered  the  Board  of  Home  Missions 
^3000  a  year  for  work  among  the  foreigners.  We 
gladly  accept  this  generous  gift  and  would  welcome 
other  such  gifts.  We  find  difficulty  in  securing  com- 
petent men  to  preach  the  gospel  who  can  speak  to  these 
foreigners  in  the  tongue  wherein  they  were  born. 

EVANGELIZING  THE  WOELD 

The  second  great  need  of  the  Church  is  a  true  con- 
ception of  the  home  missionary  work  to  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  the  world.  The  winning  of  76,000,000  American 
citizens  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus 
is  a  duty  of  supreme  moment  and  rests  wholly  upon 
the  American  Church.  If  the  Avork  did  not  extend 
beyond  our  own  country,  even  then  it  would  have  first 
claim  upon  us,  but  no  man  liveth  to  himself,  and  America 
lives  for  the  world.  We  must  hold  the  ground  already 
won.  That  becomes  increasingly  difficult  year  by  year 
in  many  places  throughout  the  country.  Self-support- 
ing churches  are  weakened  by  emigration.  The  for- 
eigner who  comes  in  to  cultivate  the  soil  is  the  friend 
neither  of  education  nor  of  the  Christian  religion. 
Many  a  fair  spot  in  our  land  has  been  reduced  almost  to 
spiritual  barrenness  by  the  coming  of  the  foreigner  to 
take  the  place  of  the  native  American.     Then  the  re- 


144  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

cruits  both  of  men  and  money  for  foreign  missionary 
work  are  to  be  expected  mainly  from  the  snuill  and 
strnggling  chnrehes.  The  aggregate  sum  given  by  the 
rich  people  of  our  churches  for  the  work  of  missions, 
home  and  foreign,  is  a  small  fraction  of  the  total  sum. 
The  poor  out  of  their  poverty  and  the  plainer  people  of 
our  country  give  a  much  greater  sum.  Kor  do  we 
think  of  looking  to  our  rich  city  churches  for  the  men 
or  women  to  go  as  missionaries  at  home  and  abroad. 
The  Church  has  found  that  these  must  be  looked  for 
from  communities  far  removed  from  the  rush  and  roar 
of  city  life.  The  progress  which  is  to  be  made  in 
the  evangelization  of  the  world  will  depend  both  actu- 
ally and  relatively  upon  the  success  of  the  home  mission 
work.  As  we  multiply  and  strengthen  the  churches  at 
home,  these  same  churches  in  turn  give  of  their  means 
and  their  children  to  carry  the  gospel  to  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth. 

We  need  the  baptism  of  the  spirit  of  missions.  In 
these  last  days  the  country  has  received  a  wonderful 
baptism  of  generosity  to  philanthropic  and  educational 
interests.  We  rejoice  to  speak  the  heartiest  word  of 
praise  of  such  a  man  as  Robert  C.  Ogden,  a  member  of 
the  Board  of  Home  Missions,  and  the  head  of  the  great 
movement  for  the  educational  improvement  of  the 
South.  And  words  of  praise  are  heartily  given  to  such 
men  as  Mr.  Carnegie  and  Mr.  Rockefeller.  But  where 
is  the  movement,  and  who  are  the  men  giving  of  their 
vast  fortunes  in  any  proportionate  degree  for  the  salva- 
tion  of   America,    for   the    conversion  of  the  world? 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  145 

These  other  thhigs  we  ought  to  do,  but  this  greater 
thing  we  ought  not  to  have  left  undone.  We  ought  to 
seek  in  this  Assembly  and  throughout  all  our  churches 
in  ceaseless  importunity  and  prayer  for  an  outpouring 
of  the  spirit  of  missions.  The  Presbyterian  Church 
alone  could  readily  provide  both  the  missions  and  the 
missionaries  for  all  the  work  that  needs  to  be  done  for 
the  evangelization  of  the  world.  We  lack  but  one  thing, 
and  that  is  the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Our 
devout  prayer  is  that  this  centennial  year  may  have  as 
its  supreme  and  crowning  benediction  the  giving  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  to  all  the  ministers  and  people  of  our  Pres- 
byterian household  for  the  work  of  missions. 


10 


THE  SELF-SUPPOETING  SYNODS 

BY  THE 

EEV.  EBEN  B.  COBB,  D.  D. 


Mr.  3£oderator,  Fathers,  and  Brethren : — 

At  the  time  of  the  reunion  in  1870  our  Church  was 
confronted  with  this  somewhat  startling  fact :  that  of 
our  "  working  ministry  " — by  which  I  mean  the  min- 
isters in  this  country  statedly  serving  our  various  con- 
gregations— nearly  one-half  were  missionaries,  in  other 
words,  were  under  commission  from  the  Home  Board, 
more  than  half  of  them  being  located  in  the  East ;  and 
of  our  "  working  ministry "  not  missionaries,  only  a 
little  over  one-half  were  pastors.  It  Avas  felt  that  some- 
thing ought  to  be  done.  Our  feeble  churches,  especially 
in  the  East,  must  be  better  supported.  It  would  not  do 
simply  to  prepare  men  for  the  Christian  ministry  and  to 
care  for  them  after  they  had  been  honorably  retired; 
they  must  be  sustained  in  their  work  as  well.  Over- 
tures one,  two,  three,  and  four,  presented  to  that  first 
reunited  Assembly,  had  reference  to  this  point.  And,  as 
a  result,  a  Committee  was  appointed  to  report  to  the 
next  Assembly.  So,  in  1871,  under  the  fostering 
care  of  Drs.  Jacobus  and  McCosh,  who  had  known 
something  of  a  similar  scheme  in  Scotland,  the  so-called 

146 


CENTENNIAL  OF  HOME  MISSIONS  147 

"  Sustentation  Scheme "  of  our  Church  was  launched. 
It  was  admirable  in  its  purpose,  wise  in  its  theory, 
economical  in  its  management,  had  many  warm  friends, 
and  was  pushed  with  intelligence  and  vigor.  So  that  at 
the  close  of  its  first  year,  which  was  exceedingly  pros- 
perous, the  Assembly  recorded  its  judgment  that  the 
sustentation  scheme  was  "  no  longer  an  experiment,  but 
a  fixed  fact,  for  which  we  would  give  thanks  to  the 
Great  Head  of  the  Church." 

But  almost  immediately  difficulties  in  administration 
began  to  arise.  The  sustentation  work  had  been  sepa- 
rated at  the  outset  from  that  of  the  Home  Board  to 
which  it  naturally  belonged  because  it  was  felt  that  the 
Board  had  already  all  that  it  could  well  do.  But,  cover- 
ing a  similar  field  and  operating  along  similar  lines,  it 
was  inevitable  that  the  Sustentation  Committee  and  the 
Home  Board  should  occasionally  clash.  Hence  in  1874 
the  sustentation  work  was  merged  in  that  of  the  Home 
Board,  which  was  then  divided  into  two  parts,  missions 
and  sustentation,  with  a  collection  to  be  taken  for  each. 
But  even  this  did  not  meet  the  difficulty.  The  principle 
underlying  the  sustentation  idea  was  good,  but  the  ap- 
plication of  this  principle  to  the  varying  exigencies  of 
the  case  was  practically  impossible.  The  Board  did  its 
best,  being  aided  by  repeated  overtures  sent  up  to  suc- 
ceeding Assemblies  and  by  the  counsel  of  numerous 
committees  which,  from  time  to  time,  were  appointed  to 
look  into  the  work ;  but  all  in  vain.  Interest  waned. 
Receipts  fell  off.  And  it  is  possible  that  in  1882  the 
whole  scheme  would  have  been  abandoned  had  not  the 


148  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

rumor  gained  currency  that  the  Home  Board,  which  was 
best  acquainted  with  the  situation,  was  about  to  make  a 
suggestion  Avhich,  it  was  hoped,  might  meet  the  necessi- 
ties of  the  case. 

That  suggestion  came  the  following  year  in  these 
words : 

"  The  Board  is  of  the  opinion  that  the  (sustentation) 
scheme  could  be  made  to  meet  all  the  expectations  of  its 
most  sanguine  friends  if  the  eastern  synods  should  see 
fit  to  adopt  it  for  supplying  their  waning  churches. 
The  West  is  opening  up  so  rapidly,  and  the  demands 
made  by  its  destitute  fields  on  our  treasury  are  so  great, 
that  it  would  be  well  for  the  large  and  wealthy  Synods 
of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  Ohio, 
and,  perhaps,  Michigan,  Indiana,  and  Illinois  to  under- 
take the  support  of  their  own  weak  churches  by  special 
contributions,  called  sustentation  contributions."  This 
suggestion  of  the  Home  Board  was  by  that  Assembly 
commended  "to  the  favorable  consideration  of  the 
older  synods." 

Now  I  do  not  know  who  was  the  author  of  this  sug- 
gestion from  the  Home  Board.  It  may  have  been  dear 
old  Dr.  Kendall.  But  I  am  here  to  affirm  that  it  was 
one  of  the  wisest  suggestions  which  ever  issued  from 
that  noble  Board.  Its  author  had  no  idea  to  Avhat  it 
Avould  lead.  The  Assembly  which  endorsed  it  had  not. 
But  we  know  that  it  has  led,  under  God,  to  the  adoj)ti()n 
and  operation  of  a  scheme  of  synodical  self-support 
which  is  the  ever-increasing  admiration  of  those  who 
know  most  about  it  and  the  ground  of  assured  confi- 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  3IISSI0NS  149 

dence  that  larger  and  greater  work  will  be  done  in  days 
to  come. 

Kentucky  was  the  first  to  respond.  That  very  year, 
or  in  the  fall  of  1883,  it  agreed  to  supplement  by  spe- 
cial gifts  the  amount  received  from  the  Home  Board  for 
work  within  its  own  bounds.  And  that  supplemental 
work  it  has  continued  ever  since  with  most  gratifying 
results. 

But  the  other  synods,  the  synods  especially  men- 
tioned in  the  suggestion  of  the  Home  Board,  were  not 
at  once  ready  to  act.  It  was  seen  by  them  very  clearly 
that  the  sustentation  idea  pure  and  simple — that  is,  the 
caring  for  the  existent  but  feeble  churches  in  rural  and 
other  localities — would  not  suffice.  There  were  multi- 
tudes of  foreigners  swarming  into  their  bounds  and  con- 
gregating in  their  great  cities  ;  and  manufacturing  com- 
munities and  suburban  towns  rapidly  springing  into  ex- 
istence, as  well  as  feeble  churches,  which  must  be  pro- 
vided for.  Indeed,  the  work  of  these  older  synods  was 
seen  to  be  in  its  need,  purpose,  method,  and  importance 
identical  with  that  of  the  Home  Board,  while  it  was  sur- 
rounded by  difficulties  peculiarly  its  own.  Could  these 
synods  do  this  work?  And  if  they  should  make  the 
attempt,  how  could  they  do  it  without  taking  from  the 
prestige  of  the  Home  Board  ?  It  was  a  serious  problem. 
But  as  loyal  Presbyterians,  determined  to  love  the  Lord 
their  God  and  his  work  with  all  their  minds  as  well  as 
with  all  their  hearts,  they  wrestled  with  it.  So  that  in 
1886  New  Jersey  announced  that  it  was  ready  to  walk 
alone.     Pennsylvania  and    New   York   soon   followed. 


150  CEyi'EyyiAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

Then  came  Baltimore.  Then  Indiana,  Illinois,  and 
Oliio.  And  now,  last  fall,  Michigan  has  started.  And 
there  are  deep  searchings  of  heart  in  Iowa  and  Nebraska 
whether  they  also  are  not  ready  to  fall  into  line. 

I  have  no  time  to  enlarge  upon  the  plans  of  procedure 
under  which  these  various  self-supporting  synods  work. 
Their  plans  differ,  as  you  would  expect  from  the  differ- 
ent fields  in  which  and  the  different  conditions  under 
which  they  operate.  They  have,  for  the  most  part,  been 
wrought  out  as  the  result  of  considerable  experience. 
But  they  agree  in  at  least  three  weighty  particulars, 
which  I  would  have  you  note. 

1.  THEY  ARE  ALL  LOYAL  TO  THE  BOAED 

The  first  article  in  New  Jersey's  scheme,  for  example, 
reads  :  "  Each  church  within  the  bounds  of  the  Synod 
of  New  Jersey  is  enjoined  to  take  up  annually  at  least 
one  collection  for  the  Board  of  Home  Missions."  And 
only  after  this  has  been  accepted  does  the  second  article 
read,  "  Each  church  within  the  bounds  of  the  Synod  of 
New  Jersey  shall  also  take  up  annually  at  least  one  col- 
lection for  Synodical  Home  Missions."  And  though 
this  loyalty  to  the  Board  is  not,  perhaps,  so  thrust  to  the 
front  in  the  ])lans  of  the  other  self-supporting  synods,  it 
is  in  these  plans  none  the  less.  I  know  that  this  Avas 
doubted  at  the  first.  There  were  some,  even  among  the 
members  of  the  Board,  who  feared  lest  the  suggestion 
of  the  Board  should  so  be  construed  by  certain  of  the 
synods  as  to  lead  to  the  adoption  of  plans  which  would 
be  injurious  to  the  Board.     Especially  was  this  the  case 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  151 

when  tlie  somcwlmt  unique  plan  of  Indiana  was  adopted. 
But  time  has  dispelled  all  these  fears.  There  is  no  one 
who  questions  now  the  loyalty  to  the  Home  Board  of 
all  these  somewliat  differing  plans. 

Should  there  be  one  who  would  think  of  the  possi- 
bility of  entertaining  sueh  a  suspieion,  that  one  would 
only  have  to  be  pointed  to  the  record  of  the  last  year 
during  which,  while  expending  about  $130,000  upon 
themselves,  these  self-supporting  synods  have  given  to 
the  Board  the  additional  sum  of  nearly  |4,000,000,  or 
almost  one-half  of  the  gift  of  the  entire  Church,  to 
have  his  slightest  concern  entirely  dispelled. 

Then  the  plans  of  these  self-supporting  synods  agree 
in  that — 

2.  THEY    HAVE    ALL    ACHIEVED  A   CONSPICUOUS    SUCCESS 

It  is  indeed  true  that  only  four  of  these  synods — viz., 
New  Jersey,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Ohio — have,  from 
the  outset,  paid  their  own  way  while  at  the  same  time 
contributing  to  the  Board  as  well.  But  there  are  three 
other  synods  which  ought  to  be  associated  with  these, 
in  that  for  many  years  they  have  been  paying  into  the 
Home  Board  far  more  than  they  have  been  taking  back — 
Baltimore,  which  last  year  made  a  net  gift  to  the  Board 
of  nearly  $14,000  ;  and  New  York  and  Pennsylvania, 
Avhich  each  made  a  net  gift  to  the  Board  of  almost 
$120,000.  So  that  these  three  synods  have  only  to 
make  a  slight  change,  which  we  are  contident  that  they 
will  soon  make,  in  the  arrangement  of  their  giving,  to 
bring  them  fully  into  line.     And   that  Iowa  is  wise  in 


152  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

considering  tlie  question  of  walkino;  alone  is  attested  by 
the  fact  that  that  synod,  one  of  our  purely  home  mis- 
sion fields  of  a  few  years  ago,  and  one  in  which  even 
now  there  are  more  missionaries  under  commission  from 
the  Home  Board  than  in  any  other  synod,  last  year 
gave  more  to  the  Board  than  it  received  from  the  Board 
by  the  sum  of  $970. 

But  it  is  not  so  much  in  the  money  raised  as  in  the 
grade  of  work  done  that  the  success  of  these  self-sup- 
porting synods  is  revealed.  "  We  are  expending  twice 
as  much  money  and  doing  twice  as  much  work,  besides 
doing  it  more  satisfactorily,"  is  the  statement  of  Balti- 
more, with  which  all  the  other  synods  agree.  There 
never  was  a  time  in  the  history  of  these  synods  when 
their  older  fields  were  better  occupied,  their  new  fields 
more  promptly  and  efficiently  entered  upon,  the  work 
everywhere  more  carefully  watched  and  guided,  and 
God's  blessing  upon  their  labors  more  abundant  and 
marked.  They  are  pressing  forward  to  possess  their 
portion  of  the  land  for  Christ,  and  are  sure  that  their 
labors  are  not  in  vain  in  the  Lord. 

Then,  once  more,  the  plans  of  these  self-supporting 
synods  agree  in  this, 

3.  THAT  THEY  ARE  FULL  OF  HOPE  FOR  THE  FUTURE 

Not  one  of  these  synods  would  for  one  moment  enter- 
tain the  thought  of  returning  to  the  method  of  the  past. 
The  new,  in  this  instance  at  least,  they  know  to  be  better 
than  the  old,  better  in  what  it  has  done,  better  in  what 
it  will  do.     It  has  relieved  the  Board  of  many  burdens 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  153 

while  at  the  same  time  contributing  largely  to  the  work 
of  the  Board,  and  it  has  done  for  itself  that  which  would 
not  and  could  not  have  been  otherwise  achieved.  And 
all  these  self-supporting  synods  thank  God — and  in 
their  thankso-ivino;  the  whole  Church  would  do  well  to 
unite — that  just  as  God  through  his  Providence  had 
opened  up  new  fields  of  opportunity  in  Porto  Rico, 
Cuba,  Alaska,  Hawaii,  the  Philippines,  and  the  like, 
they,  by  their  distinctive  work,  are  making  more  stable 
and  fruitful  the  base  of  supplies  by  which  this  advance 
into  the  regions  beyond  is  to  be  achieved.  And  just  as 
it  was  beginning  to  be  questioned  whether,  after  all,  oui 
synodical  meetings  were  not  somewhat  unnecessary  in 
our  ecclesiastical  organization,  this  work — the  work  of 
evangelizing  their  own  beloved  State — was  brought  to 
the  front,  through  the  consideration  of  which  the  meet- 
ings of  synods  were  turned  into  enthusiastic  missionary 
gatherings,  in  which  the  all-too-much  neglected  element 
of  State  pride  was  made  to  contribute  to  the  advance- 
ment of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom  throughout  the  State 
and  unto  the  very  ends  of  the  earth. 

The  standing  rule  in  the  Synod  of  Pennsylvania,  for 
example,  is  that  "  the  first  order  after  the  organization 
of  synod,"  the  order  which  shall  take  precedence  of  the 
appointment  of  the  standing  committees  and  of  every 
other  business,  shall  be  the  hearing  of  "the  annual 
report  of  the  Permanent  Committee  on  Synodical  Sus- 
tentation,"  and  this  standing  rule,  carried  out  in  that 
synod  and  practically  also  carried  out  in  all  the  other 
self-supporting   synods,  gives  to  these   synods   at   the 


ir;4  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

very  beginning  of  their  deliberatiuns  that  evangelistic 
key-note  whieli  j\Ir.  John  H.  Converse,  throngh  his  able 
evangelistic  committee,  is  giving  to  the  meetings  of  our 
General  Assembly,  and  by  which  these  synodical  meet- 
ings are  becoming  an  increasing  power  for  the  spread  of 
the  gospel  throughout  the  world. 

But  before  I  sit  down  I  must  say  a  word  as  to  why 
the  home  mission  work  of  these  self-supporting  synods 
is  so  successfully  carried  on.  Their  success,  under  God, 
is  due  to  three  things  : — 

(a)  To  superb  organization ;  (6)  to  economical  and 
wise  administration,  and  (c)  to  recognized  need. 

(a)  To  Superb  Organization. — The  Synod,  or  State  of 
New  Jersey,  for  example,  is  divided  into  s(>ctions  called 
Presbyteries.  In  each  of  these  presbyteries  there  is  a 
committee  having  charge  of  this  work,  the  chairman  of 
this  committee  being  a  member  of  the  State  committee, 
and  the  committee  itself  being  so  constituted  as  fairly 
to  represent  all  parts  of  its  field  and  all  interests  in- 
volved. This  presbytcrial  committee,  minutely  ac- 
quainted with  its  portion  of  the  State,  reports  to  pres- 
bytery ;  presbytery,  through  the  chairman  of  its  com- 
mittee, reports  to  synod's  committee ;  synod's  com- 
mittee reports  to  synod ;  and  by  the  synod,  thus  in 
possession  of  all  the  facts,  the  work  is  administered.  A 
certain  amount  of  money  is  asked  from  each  presby- 
tery ;  a  certain  amount  is  allotted  to  each  presbytery, — 
the  presbyteries  being  allowed  to  raise  and  expend  the 
money  assigned  to  them  in  their  own  way, — and  thus, 
for  fifteen  years,  the  work  has  been  administered  with- 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  155 

out  friction  and  witliout  debt,  and  with  ever  increas- 
ing efficiency  and  favor.  And  wliat  is  true  of  New 
Jersey  is  true  of  all  the  other  synods,  though  of  their 
particular  form  of  organization  I  cannot  now  speak  for 
lack  of  time.  In  organization,  we  are  told,  there  is 
strength.  And  the  work  in  these  self-supporting  synods 
is  strong,  and  has  achieved  such  a  conspicuous  success 
because  it  is  superbly  organized. 

Then  the  success  of  this  work  is  due — 

(6)  To  Economical  aiid  Wise  Administration. — No 
field  is  aided  until  most  careful  investigation  has  been 
made  as  to  its  needs.  The  amount  given  is,  in  each 
instance,  the  smallest  amount  which  can  wisely  be 
appropriated  to  that  field.  When  a  field  is  aided  it  is, 
at  the  same  time,  instructed  to  expect  an  annual  reduc- 
tion in  the  amount  appropriated  to  it,  so  that,  as  soon  as 
possible,  it  may  come  to  self-support.  Wherever  prac- 
ticable, fields  are  grouped.  All  members  of  committees 
and  the  treasurer  of  the  fund  work  without  salary,  busy 
pastors  and  ecpially  busy  laymen  devoting  themselves  to 
this  work  out  of  love  to  Christ  and  the  Church.  In  a 
few  of  the  synods  paid  superintendents  are  employed 
with  most  gratifying  results.  But  everywhere  and 
always  the  endeavor  is  made  to  do  the  work  with  the 
least  possible  expense  consistent  with  efficiency.  And 
as  a  result  New  Jersey — and  I  speak  of  it  simply 
because  it  is  most  familiar  to  me — has,  since  it  began, 
raised  and  expended  for  work  within  its  own  bounds 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  dollars  at  an 
expense  for   traveling,  printing,  postage,  etc.,  of  only 


156  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

about  tliroo  tliousand  dollars.  AVliile,  diiriiio;  the  same 
})eriod,  it  has  given  to  the  Home  I)<«u'd  a  niillioii  dollai's 
more.  Work  well  done  and  at  little  cost  always  com- 
mands respect.  And  the  work  in  tiiese  self-su])porting 
synods  is  commanding  the  enthusiastic  approval  of  all 
who  are  familiar  with  it  because  it  is  so  economically 
and  wisely  administered. 

Then,  once  more,  the  success  of  this  work  is  due — 
(c)  To  Recognized  Need. — Why,  fathers  and  brethren, 
do  you  realize  that  nearly  all  of  the  large  cities  of  our 
country,  with  all  their  pressing  and  perplexing  prob- 
lems, are  located  within  the  bounds  of  these  self-sup- 
porting synods — New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore, 
Pittsburg,  Buffalo,  Cleveland,  Cincinnati,  Indianapolis, 
Detroit,  and  Chicago?  Do  you  realize  that  just  across 
the  Hudson,  in  the  northeastern  corner  of  New  Jersey, 
and  not  much  more  than  a  dozen  miles  back  from  the 
river,  are  more  than  a  million  people,  among  them  some 
of  the  worst  of  the  foreign  element  found  in  our  land, 
from  whom,  a  short  time  since,  one  went  forth  to 
assassinate  the  King  of  Italy,  and  among  whom,  last 
summer,  a  meeting  was  held  to  commemorate  the  anni- 
versary of  that  assassination,  which  meeting  contributed 
not  a  little,  we  believe,  to  the  inflaming  of  C^zolgosz  for 
his  awful  deed?  Do  you  realize  that  the  Synod  of 
Pennsylvania,  which  includes  also  the  State  of  West 
Virginia,  has,  within  its  bounds,  a  mission  field  in  its 
needs  and  opportunities  second  to  none  in  our  land  ? 
Do  you  realize — ,  but  I  forbear. 

Fathers  and   brethren  :  AVhen,  going  back  into  the 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  157 

country  to  the  rural  church  in  wliich  many  of  our  best 
citizens  were  brought  up  and  from  which  much  of  their 
moral  greatness  was  derived,  I  find  these  churches 
depleted  in  membership,  shorn  of  their  financial  strength, 
and  having  a  desperate  struggle  even  to  live,  I  say, 
"  these  rural  churches  must  be  kept  up  that  they  may 
continue  to  be  as  springs  in  the  mountains  to  purify 
and  strengthen  the  life  of  our  city  churches."  Or 
when,  going  out  from  our  great  cities,  I  see,  along  the 
line  of  every  railroad,  suburban  towns  rapidly  spring- 
ing into  existence  where  a  little  help  now  will  insure 
self-support  in  the  very  near  future,  I  say,  "  these 
churches  must  be  helped."  Or  when,  standing  toward 
tlie  close  of  the  day,  as  I  have  often  done,  by  the  gate 
of  some  newly  erected  manufacturing  establishment,  I 
watch  the  mechanics  pour  out  on  their  way  to  their  rude 
and  not  altogether  comfortable  homes,  I  say,  "  the 
spiritual  destitution  of  these  men  of  toil  must  be  met, 
even  though  it  may  be  a  long  time  before  any  work 
among  them  can  attain  to  self-support."  Or  when  I 
think  of  the  teeming  multitudes  in  New  York  and 
Chicago,  for  example,  "  without  God  and  without  hope 
in  the  world,"  I  say,  "  whatever  else  is  neglected,  these 
must  not  be."  And  yet  these  are  but  a  few  of  the  items 
which  make  up  the  need  which  the  self-supporting 
synods  of  our  Church  are  striving  to  meet.  And 
because  the  need  of  the  work  w^hich  they  are  trying  to 
do  is  increasingly  being  recognized,  therefore  is  its  im- 
portance and  value  being  increasingly  appreciated. 
This  then,  in  briefest  outline,  is  the  work  of  the  self- 


158  CENTENMAL  OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

supporting  synods  of  our  beloved  Church.  What  is  it? 
Only  a  branch  of  home  mission  activity,  the  sustenta- 
tion  idea  of  the  reunion  made  practical  and  put  into 
successful  operation,  an  earnest  attempt  to  qualify  our 
home  churches  to  press  forward  with  greater  vigor  and 
efficiency  into  the  regions  beyond. 


MISSIONARIES'  ADDRESSES 


HOME  MISSIONS  IN  TEXAS 

BY  THE 

EEV.  HENEY  S.  LITTLE,  D.  D. 
Denison,  Texas 


Texas  Home  Missions  are  conspicuous  for  three  re- 
sults :  There  are  64  counties  in  Texas  that  are  entirely 
prohibition.  Of  the  remaining  251  counties  102  are 
partially  prohibition,  and  in  37  of  these  it  prevails  in 
more  than  half  the  territory.  This  is  measurably  the 
result  of  home  missionary  effort.  In  two  of  these 
counties  it  was  almost  wholly  clue  to  a  canvass  by  home 
missionaries,  and  elsewhere  home  missionary  influence 
was  eminent. 

Home  missions  in  small  places,  places  that  come  to 
self-support  slowly,  should  be  noticed.  These  are  poor 
because  they  feed  the  larger  churches.  In  one  section 
of  Texas  several  small  places  have  sent  numbers  to  the 
neighboring  cities.  They  were  just  the  men  to  bring 
the  small  churches  to  self-support.  Had  they  remained 
where  they  were,  the  churches  so  long  on  the  Board 
would  have  reached  independence.  These  churches 
ought  to  be  helped.  They  are  essential  factors  in  the 
work  as  a  whole.  The  best  material  of  the  larger 
churches  would  be  otherwise  lacking. 

159 


160  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

One  of  tlie  commissioners  at  this  Assembly  is  pastor 
of  one  of  the  finest  cliurclies  in  Texas.  It  was  organ- 
ized a  few  years  ago  with  eighteen  members.  Last  year 
it  built  a  house  of  worship  costing  ^10,000,  and  it  has 
built  and  paid  for  a  school  costing  $25,000. 

Home  missions  carry  the  gospel  where  it  would 
otherwise  not  go.  There  are  many,  many  places  that 
cannot  support  the  gospel  themselves  which  represent 
the  most  valuable  people.  El  Paso,  in  Texas,  has  a 
larger  addition  to  its  membership  than  any  other  church, 
and  yet  there  were  years  when  that  church  could  not 
stand  alone.  Not  to  have  held  it  then  w^ould  have  lost 
it.  It  takes  but  a  few  years  of  El  Paso  growth  and 
giving  to  compensate  the  Board  for  all  that  has  been 
done  for  her. 

Mr.  Bloys,  of  Fort  Davis,  is  the  most  successful  home 
missionary  that  I  know.  He  often  rides  40  miles  to  a 
service,  a  funeral,  or  a  wedding.  On  fifth  Sundays  he 
rides  70  miles  to  an  appointment.  His  parish  is  500 
miles  long  and  165  miles  broad.  It  may  be  years 
before  his  church  can  come  to  self-support,  but  the 
Grand  Jury  sat  in  his  cattle-men's  country  for  three 
successive  years  without  finding  a  single  case  of  any 
description.  Men  say  that  this  is  largely  due  to  a  camp- 
meeting  that  he  holds  once  a  year.  Men  hear  him,  may 
join  his  church,  and  then  move  away.  He  is  home 
missions  pure  and  simple.  Men  are  scattered  far  and 
near.     They  ought  to  have  the  gospel. 


THE  YUKON  VALLEY 

BY    THE 

REV.  M.  EGBERT  KOONCE,  Ph.D., 
Rampart,  Alaska 


I  HAVE  come  too  far  to  waste  any  words  this  morning 
in  trying  to  lay  before  you  the  beauties  of  the  country 
which  I  represent.  I  want  to  get  right  down  to  the  gist 
of  the  matter.  We  were  entertained  yesterday  by  an 
account  of  the  march  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  across 
the  continent. 

We  have  two  presbyteries  in  Alaska — an  extent  of 
territory  equal  to  twenty  of  youi-  western  States  and  a 
dozen,  perhaps,  of  your  best  synods.  Into  that  little 
country  three  years  ago  the  Home  Board,  at  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Church,  sent  three  missionary  preachers  to 
preach  the  gospel  to  a  population  which  was  scattered 
from  one  end  of  it  to  the  other.  We  went  in  there  full 
of  faith,  believing  that  it  could  be  done,  and  we  have 
covered  that  country  to  the  best  of  our  ability.  Three 
or  four  stations  have  been  established.  Of  the  three 
all  are  vacant  now  save  just  one.  I  expect  to  go 
back  in  a  few  weeks,  and  then  there  will  be  two,  if 
the  Church  does  not  send   more   men.     What  are  you 

11  KU 


162  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

going  to  do,  brethren,  for  that  country?  It  is  not  a 
place  where  pohir  bears  roam  round  and  where  shadows 
of  animals  are  frozen  to  the  ground.  It  is  a  beautiful 
country.  You  can  gather  flowers  there  more  beautiful 
than  any  I  have  ever  looked  upon  here ;  and  in  certain 
seasons  the  climate  is  unequalled  in  any  other  part  of 
our  country,  and  you  will  find  mosquitoes  in  more  varie- 
ties than  you  ever  dreamed  of.  It  is  a  land  of  great 
promise,  both  for  mining  and  agricultural  purposes,  and 
we  expect,  in  time,  to  see  two  or  three  agricultural  States 
carved  out. 

This  is  the  opportunity  of  the  Church.  Fifty  years 
ago  it  was  tliouo-ht  foolish  to  send  missionaries  west  of 
the  Mississippi  River.  You  have  heard  to-day  some- 
thing of  the  results  that  have  been  accomplished.  There 
is  now  no  frontier.  The  only  frontier  left  is  Alaska. 
There  is  to  be  a  population  in  the  next  fifty  years — 
and  I  know  whereof  I  speak — that  will  surprise  the 
people  even  as  the  population  west  of  the  Mississippi 
surprised  you  during  the  last  fifty. 

What  are  you  going  to  do?  Are  you  going  to  be 
satisfied  with  three  men?  Or  are  you  going  to  send 
more  men  to  take  the  land  for  Christ?  Is  it  too  much 
to  ask  you  to  send  us  another  man  ?  Dr.  Young  is 
going  to  ask  the  Cliurch  to  send  a  man  fi)r  a  place  for 
which  the  funds  have  already  been  provided. 


NORTHERN  ALASKA'S  NEED 

BY  THE 

KEV.  S.  HALL  YOUNG,  D.  D. 
General  Missionary  to  Alaska. 


I  AM  not  after  money,  I  am  after  you.  I  am  after 
some  men  for  Alaska — here  and  now ;  and  that  is  the 
kind  of  men  we  want  (pointing  to  Dr.  Koonce).  A 
walk  of  1200  miles  across  mountains  and  rivers  with  the 
thermometer  62  degrees  below  zero  is  a  very  little  thing 
for  Dr.  Koonce.  He  does  not  mind  it.  It  gives  him 
an  appetite. 

I  asked  for  a  man  last  year  at  the  General  Assembly. 
Mr.  John  H.  Converse,  of  Philadelphia,  put  into  the 
hands  of  the  Board  the  support  of  a  man  for  Teller. 
We  have  not  found  that  man  yet.  Many  times  we 
thought  we  had  found  him,  and  only  last  year  a  young 
man,  admirably  adapted  for  that  work  as  it  seemed  to  us 
and  recommended  by  many,  found,  on  consulting  with 
his  mother,  that  he  could  not  go. 

Teller  is  a  new  mining  camp  on  Behring  Sea,  in  the 
midst  of  a  mining  region,  and  has  six  camps  near  it. 
When  we  failed  to  get  that  man  last  summer  we  put 
that   church  in   charge  of   a  good    Presbyterian   elder 

163 


164  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

from  Iowa  and  he  is  holding  the  fort.  Will  you  go  ? 
AVill  you  go  ?  You  may  be  afraid  of  the  hardships. 
Well,  Dr.  Jackson,  Dr.  Koonce,  and  I  have  travelled 
somewhat  extensively  over  Alaska  the  last  few  years, 
and  speaking  for  them  as  well  as  for  myself,  I  have  to 
say  we  have  yet  to  find  the  hardships.  They  don't  exist 
for  us.  A  man  must  go  within  a  few  weeks  if  he  would 
be  in  time  before  the  rivers  close. 

Last  Sunday,  at  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  after 
my  address,  three  ladies  came  with  $300  to  put  into  that 
work  for  a  man  in  the  interior,  in  the  land  where  Dr. 
Koonce  and  Mr.  Kirk  are  laboring.  A  classmate  of  our 
Moderator  and  of  Dr.  Duffield,  and  one  of  the  brightest 
men  of  that  very  bright  class  of  1877  at  Princeton,  an 
old  college  friend  of  mine,  oifered  himself  iox  the  work. 
The  only  thing  that  makes  me  hesitate  in  nominating 
him  with  all  my  heart  for  the  position  is  that  I  love  him 
too  well.  I  hesitate  about  killing  him,  and  yet  it  is  a 
glorious  thing  to  die  in  Alaska,  and  it  might  be  the  life 
of  him  and  the  health  of  him  as  it  has  been  to  some 
others.  This  morning  our  honored  Moderator,  Henry 
van  Dyke,  put  into  my  hands  this  check  for  $500,  as  he 
said,  "  as  a  token  of  love,  to  be  used  in  the  work  of 
Alaska."  We  will  get  the  money  if  you  will  give  the 
men.  Will  you  do  it  ?  My  brethren,  comfortably  sit- 
uated in  your  pleasant  pastorates,  will  you  not  hear  the 
call?  If  you  arc  adaptable  men  and  able  to  build 
your  own  church  with  your  own  hand  ;  able  to  live  the 
life  of  the  miner ;  able  to  ''  mush  "  over  the  territory, 
and,  as  some  one  has  said,  do  everything  that  the  miners 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  165 

do  except  drink  whiskey  and  play  poker,  and  do  all  the 
necessary  things  better  than  the  miner  does,  and  preach 
the  gospel  free  from  the  lust  of  gold,  you  are  the  men 
we  want.  I  ask  this  Assembly  to  give  lis  two  or  three 
men  so  that  I  can  come  in  the  name  of  our  Board  of 
Home  Missions  and  ask  for  the  rest  of  the  money — 
and  get  it,  too. 


THE  MORMON  PROBLEM 

BY  THE 

EEV.  SHELDON  JACKSON,  D.D. 
Washington,  D.  C. 


In  this  day  of  congratulation  and  celebration  it  is  a 
good  time  for  the  Church  to  look  forward  and  gird  up 
her  loins  for  a  twentieth  century  eifort  to  capture  the 
United  States.  There  are  three  great  religious  systems 
that  have  set  themselves  to  accomplish  this — the  Mor- 
mon system,  the  Papal  system,  and  the  Protestant  sys- 
tem. If  the  Protestant  system  prevails,  our  free  insti- 
tutions will  be  perpetuated ;  if  the  Papal  system  pre- 
vails, we  will  have  liberty,  but  under  Tammany  influ- 
ences and  with  a  Tammany  flavor  at  Washington ;  if 
the  Mormon  system  prevails,  the  "president,  prophet, 
and  revelator  "  of  the  church  of  the  Latter  Day  Saints 
will  be  in  the  White  House  at  Washington  ;  Congress 
will  be  disbanded,  and  the  twelve  apostles  of  the  Mor- 
mon Church  will  dictate  the  laws  and  govern  the  land. 

I  know  that  you  are  surprised  that  I  class  the  ]\Ior- 
mon  system  as  an  influential  factor  in  our  country 
166 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  167 

with  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  and  the  Protestant 
churches,  but  to-day  the  Mormons  gather  more  converts 
in  the  United  States  than  either  the  Roman  Catholics 
or  the  Presbyterians.  The  Presbyterian  Church  sends 
22  ministers  to  the  Mormons  while  the  Mormon  Church 
sends  2000  missionaries  through  the  United  States. 
They  have  churches  and  congregations  in  every  State 
and  Territory  of  this  Union  to-day  except  Alaska. 
They  have  divided  up  the  States  into  districts,  placed  a 
missionary  bishop  in  charge  of  each  district,  and  are 
carrying  forward  with  their  missionaries  a  systematic 
house-to-house  canvass  for  converts.  And,  as  already 
intimated,  they  are  succeeding,  and  if  left  alone  may  yet 
overthrow  the  liberties  of  this  country.  I  know  that 
you  think  this  a  wild  statement,  but  go  back  seventy- 
five  years  in  western  New  York  and  see  that  tramp  out- 
fit in  camp  by  a  brook.  The  dilapidated  country  wagon 
with  its  tattered  canvas-covered  top,  the  broken-down 
team  grazing  near  by,  the  poorly-clad  women  of  the  party 
going  to  a  neighboring  farm  house  for  milk  and  food, 
testify  to  the  poverty  and  low-down  condition  of  the 
family. 

Looking  upon  that  scene,  had  some  one  remarked  to 
you,  "  See  that  tramp  family.  In  seventy-five  years 
they  will  have  a  following  of  nearly  half  a  million 
American  citizens.  In  seventy-five  years  they  will  con- 
trol a  sovereign  State  of  the  Union  and  hold  the  balance 
of  political  power  in  several  other  States.  In  seventy- 
five  years  they  will  control  the  election  of  Senators  and 
Representatives   to  the   National   Congress  from   their 


168  CENTENNIAL  OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

own  State  and  be  consnlted  with  regard  to  others ; " 
you  wonld  have  said,  "Impossible;  it  can't  be  done!" 
It  is  an  actual  fact  to-day. 

Dr.  Holmes,  in  his  inspiring  address  this  morning, 
tells  us  that  the  great  danger  of  the  American  Republic 
is  commercialism.  The  Mormon  Church  to-day  con- 
trols "  the  commercialism."  There  is  not  a  syndicate  in 
New  York  or  New  Jersey  that  is  willing  to  antagonize 
the  Mormon  Church. 

Ask  Mrs.  Darwin  R.  James,  and  she  will  tell  you 
that  thousands  upon  thousands  of  the  best  citizens  of 
the  land  have  petitioned  Congress  for  an  amendment 
prohibiting  polygamy.  But  what  does  that  amount 
to  ?  There  is  not  a  Congressman  in  Washington  who 
would  interfere.  They  don't  care  to  offend  the  Mormon 
Church.  There  is  not  a  Congressman,  either  Repub- 
lican or  Democratic,  courageous  enough  to  take  the 
leadership  in  pushing  that  amendment.  It  can't  be 
done.     It  can't,  unless  the  Church  of  Christ  wakes  up. 

Dr.  Holmes  tells  us  that  the  second  great  danger  is  for- 
eign population.  The  Mormons  are  getting  a  strong  hold 
among  the  foreigners.  They  are  everywhere.  They  are 
taking  not  only  foreigners,  but  Americans.  They  are 
going  into  Presbyterian  and  other  churches  and  taking 
out  the  communicants.  There  is  not  a  year  that  passes 
in  which  people  born  and  brought  up  and  baptized  and 
received  at  the  communion  table  of  the  Presbyterian 
and  other  churches  are  not  giving  up  the  faith  of  their 
fathers  and  going  into  the  Mormon  Church.  Thousands 
of  American  citizens  are  joining  the  Mormon  Church. 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  169 

And  that  church  confidently  looks  forward  to  the  day 
when  they  shall  be  in  full  control  of  the  United  States, 
for  they  believe  that  they  have  had  a  revelation  from 
God  that  they  are  to  take  possession  of  this  land  ;  they 
believe  that  they  have  been  promised  by  their  God 
that  the  president  of  the  Mormon  Church  shall  be  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  and  that  this  country, 
from  ocean  to  ocean  and  from  Alaska  to  the  Gulf,  shall 
be  given  to  the  saints  of  God  in  the  Mormon  Church. 
Is  there  no  hope ;  no  relief?  Yes  !  God  has  placed 
relief  in  our  hands.  Send  the  gospel  and  Christian 
schools  into  Utah  and  you  can  disintegrate  Mormonism. 
Let  the  Church  wake  up  and  supply  the  Board  of  Home 
Missions  with  the  necessary  funds  for  increasing  mission 
work  in  Utah  many  fold.  The  gospel  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  only  solvent  that  will  disintegrate 
the  Mormon  system  and  save  this  land  to  the  American 
people.  The  gospel  is  the  only  solvent  that  will  save 
your  homes  in  their  purity  to  your  children  and  to  your 
children's  children. 


Tuesday  Afternoon,  May  20,  1902 

FELLOWSHIP  MEETING 


GREETINGS  FROM  SISTER  BOARDS 


FROM  BOARD  OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 

BY  THE 

REV.  JOHN  D.  WELLS,  D.  D. 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

(Paper  presented  by  the  Eev.  David  Gregg,  D.  D.,  in  Dr.  Wells' 
absence.) 

Mr.  3Ioderator,  Fathers,  and  Brethren : — 

Ten  minutes  only  are  allowed  me  for  an  important 
and  pleasant  service.  As  freedom  of  speech  with  an 
inviting  theme  is  a  dangerous  commodity,  I  therefore 
shield  you  and  myself  with  these  bits  of  paper. 

If  I  were  performing  a  marriage  ceremony  here  and 
now,  I  am  very  sure  that  the  parties  most  nearly  con- 
cerned would  not  be  pleased  if  I  made  the  ceremony  an 
address  to  this  large  audience.  I  am  equally  sure  that 
the  Board  of  Home  Missions  with  its  officers,  to  whom 
the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  and  its  officers  have 
charged  me  to  speak  a  few  words  on  this  centennial 
occasion,  will  expect  me  to  address  them  and  not  all 
within  the  sound  of  my  voice,  though  all,  I  trust,  may 
be  able  to  hear. 

The  two  Boards  are  very  near  neighbors.  In  our 
meetings  from  month  to  month  we  occupy  parts  of  the 
same  building  belonging  to  the  Church  we  serve.    There 

173 


174  CENTENNIAL  OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

the  secretaries  and  treasurers  and  good  women  cooper- 
ating with  the  Boards  have  their  permanent  and  com- 
modious quarters.  We  have  many  interests  in  common. 
We  serve  the  same  divine  Master.  We  are  under  the 
same  great  commission  left  us  by  our  risen  Lord.  It 
is  our  call  to  service  till  he  come.  We  are  responsible 
to  the  Church  that  appoints  us^  and  to  this  Church  we 
report  yearly.  Therefore  may  I  not  say,  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord,  "  The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  and  its 
officers  affectionately  greet  the  Board  of  Home  Missions 
and  its  officers  on  this  their  hundredth  anniversary?" 

Younger  as  an  organized  body  than  you,  we  share 
with  you  your  joy  of  one  hundred  years ;  and  we  join 
the  churches  of  Christendom  in  extending  to  you  our 
hearty  greeting.  We  are  glad  that  as  you  begin  your  sec- 
ond century  of  service  you  carry  no  debt.  We  congrat- 
ulate you,  brethren,  because  you  have  lived  so  long,  and, 
by  the  grace  of  God,  have  lived  so  well.  For  though 
the  personnel  of  the  Board  has  changed,  the  organized 
body  has  retained  its  life,  its  name,  its  character,  and  its 
high  calling.  We  have  in  mind  and  heart  the  names 
of  men  who  have  wrought  well  and  now  rest  from  their 
labors.  The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  in  its  shorter 
life  has  had  a  like  experience.  You  and  we  feel  the 
influence  of  those  who  have  gone  before,  who  have 
served  our  Boards  as  officers  and  as  missionaries  and  as 
martyrs  ;  for  some  have  sealed  their  testimony  with  their 
blood.  May  we  all  be  followers  of  them  who  through 
faith  and  patience  inherit  the  promises  ! 

We  congratulate  you  because  through  the  successive 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  175 

decades  of  the  century  the  Church  you  serve,  -with  the 
Christian  Church  at  large,  has  been  growing  to  her 
present  proportions,  and  that  you  have  helped  her 
growth.  We  hope  she  is  coming  to  a  deeper  and  more 
sacred  consciousness  of  responsibility  for  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  the  peoples  of  the  home  land  and  of  all  lands. 
I  say  "  peoples "  because  representatives  have  come 
hither  from  almost  every  land  under  heaven.  Among 
those  for  whom  you  care  you  can  more  than  match  the 
Pentecostal  enumeration,  beginning  with  the  "  Parthians 
and  Medes  "  and  ending  with  the  "  Cretes  and  Ara- 
bians " — sixteen  in  all.  You  go  beyond  the  teens. 
Under  the  one  commission  you  and  the  representatives 
of  sister  denominations  are  bound  to  reach  the  ever- 
increasing  but  ever-dying  multitudes  as  soon  as  possible. 

In  his  Imago  Christi,  Dr.  Stalker  has  these  soul- 
stirring  words  : 

"  All  who  take  part  in  this  work  ought  to  build  with 
his  (Christ's)  holy  ardor.  He  thought  it  worth  while 
to  die  for  the  sake  of  redeeming  the  souls  of  men  ;  what 
sacrifice  are  we  prepared  to  make  in  contributing  to  the 
same  end  ?  He  gave  his  life :  will  we  give  up  our 
ease,  our  effort,  our  money  ?  It  was  because  he 
believed  each  single  soul  was  more  precious  than  a 
world  that  he  died  to  save  the  souls  of  men.  Are 
they  precious  in  our  eyes  ?  Does  their  fate  haunt  us  ? 
Does  their  sin  grieve  us  ?  Would  their  salvation  fill  us 
with  aught  of  the  joy  that  thrills  the  angels  in  heaven 
when  one  sinner  is  converted  ?  " 

We  congratulate  you  because  you  have  had  and  now 


176  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

have  the  privilege  of  mirturing  the  lives  of  so  many 
churches  in  the  older  and  the  newer  States  and  Territo- 
ries of  this  great  Republic.  But  for  your  living  agents 
and  sacred  agencies,  whole  States  and  Territories  would 
have  no  Presbyterian  churches,  schools,  academies,  or 
colleges.  In  this  great  work  you  have  cooperated  with 
other  Boards  of  the  Church,  and  in  some  instances  you 
have  established  the  gospel  among  people  for  whom  no 
others  have  cared. 

We  congratulate  you  because,  as  fully  as  possible  with 
the  means  at  your  command,  you  have  kept  pace  with 
the  phenomenal  extension  of  our  national  territory  and 
the  growth  of  the  nation  itself.  You  have  made  it 
comparatively  safe  for  people  of  enterprise  to  seek 
homes  for  themselves  in  advance  of  the  sure  protection 
of  civil  government ;  and  at  last  you  have  the  joy, 
with  all  loyal  American  citizens,  of  seeing  our  nation  a 
power  and  a  benediction  among  the  great  nations  of  the 
world,  and  the  richest  of  them  all.  To  this  result  you 
have  ministered,  unwittingly  perhaps,  while  seeking  one 
still  higher,  according  to  the  mind  of  God. 

We  congratulate  you  because  you  are  doing  a  blessed 
work  among  the  remnants  of  the  Indian  tribes  of  our 
land,  having  accepted  this  work  largely  from  the  For- 
eign Board,  and  hastening  the  day,  we  may  hope,  when 
they  all  will  prize  full  citizenship,  the  possession  and 
cultivation  of  farms  in  severalty,  and  w^hat  is  still  more 
important,  the  sharing  with  all  Christian  people  in  "  the 
durable  riches  of  righteousness "  and  "  the  kingdom 
of  the  heavens." 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  177 

We  congratulate  you  because  of  the  character  and 
gracious  efficiency  of  your  missionaries.  I  may  not 
mention  names.  I  barely  refer  to  some  communities  in 
out-of-the-way  places,  especially  in  mountain  regions 
difficult  of  access,  where  human  deterioration  had 
reached  its  lowest  depths,  but  where  now  transforma- 
tions of  character  and  destiny  are  the  glory  of  the  land 
and  the  joy  of  heaven.  If  we  could  even  glance  at 
your  work  in  Alaska,  Porto  Rico,  and  Cuba — Cuba, 
whose  name  this  very  day,  under  American  leadership, 
is  for  the  first  time  written  in  the  annals  of  history  as 
a  nation  and  a  republic  and  a  free  people — we  might 
possibly  make  our  congratulations  more  emphatic,  if  we 
cannot  make  them  more  sincere. 

You  are  to  be  strongly  congratulated,  as  we  of  the 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions  and  the  whole  Church  are, 
because  of  the  wise  and  earnest  and  gracious  coopera- 
tion of  our  Christian  women  in  the  practical,  admin- 
istrative, and  editorial  Avork  of  missions.  What  should 
or  could  we  now  do  without  them  ?  How  did  the 
Church  and  her  Boards  accomplish  their  parts  of  evan- 
gelistic work  among  the  peoples  of  the  Avorld  before 
they  were  organized  for  efficient  service  ?  Not  less  than 
in  our  homes  and  separate  churches,  they  are  a  lovely 
necessity  in  all  mission  work  at  home  and  abroad. 

As  I  am  called  to  speak  for  the  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions,  all  of  whose  members  and  officers  I  know,  it 
is  my  regret  that  I  do  not  know  all  the  members  of  the 
Board  of  Home  Missions,  though  I  have  the  pleasure  of 
knowing  its  officers.     May  I  not  say  at  least,  from  in- 


178  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

formation  and  partial  knowledge,  that  you  are  the  Avorthy 
successors  of  those  who  have  gone  before?  You  liave 
entered  into  their  labors.  You  have  come  to  the  king- 
dom for  such  a  day  as  this.  We  are  glad  to  be  under 
the  same  roof  with  you.  We  cannot  forget  that  with 
you  we  have  our  Lord's  promise  in  its  broadest  and 
most  specific  terms  :  "  Ye  shall  receive  power,  after  that 
the  Holy  Ghost  is  come  upon  you :  and  ye  shall  be  wit- 
nesses unto  me  both  in  Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judca,  and 
in  Samaria,  and  unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth." 
It  was  an  apostolic  promise  at  first,  but  it  is  a  promise 
now  for  the  churches  of  all  times  and  all  lands. 

A  word  about  the  future.  In  some  respects  it  will  be 
as  the  past.  The  personnel  of  the  Boards  and  of  their 
officers  will  change.  But  why  regret  this  ?  The  Lord 
of  life  wdio  loves  us  will  order  the  changes.  He  will 
so  order  them  that  the  work  will  go  on  until  he  come. 
These  changes  will  hasten  his  appearing.  Brethren, 
the  work  will  grow  upon  your  hands.  We  hope  that  this 
centennial  celebration  may  help  it  financially  ;  and  if 
financially,  then  also  in  its  scope  and  power.  We 
hopefully  look  forward  to  the  winning  of  more  souls, 
the  multiplying  of  Christian  institutions,  the  exalting 
of  our  nation  by  righteousness,  and  the  bringing  of 
more  glory  to  the  God  of  our  salvation. 

The  report  of  this  centennial  observance  will  be  car- 
ried by  members  of  the  Assembly  to  the  presbyteries 
of  the  Church.  It  will  reach  all  pastors  and  stated  suj)- 
plies  and  churches  without  pastors.  May  we  not  hope 
that  more  of  our  ministers  will  sound  the  tidings  of  your 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  179 

age,  your  vigor,  and  your  work  for  Christ  and  souls  and 
country  from  their  pulpits?  Your  periodicals  and  leaf- 
lets will  publish  the  good  news.  You  stand  on  the 
threshold  of  the  new  century  with  glad  hearts,  eager  to 
finish  the  work  given  you  to  do.  Never  forget  that  this 
is  the  Pentecostal  era.  Seek  and  expect  and  receive 
the  divine  benediction. 

May  you  and  we,  with  all  the  members  of  mission- 
ary boards  and  societies,  and  all  Christian  people,  "  be 
filled  with  the  Spirit"  for  eflficient  service,  and  so  hasten 
the  coming  of  the  Lord  and  the  kingdom  of  glory  ! 
Amen ! 


FROM  THE  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION 

BY  THE 

EEV.  GEO.  D.  BAKEE,  D.  D. 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 


Fathers  and  Brethren : — 

"  Misery/'  so  runs  the  proverb,  "  loves  company," 
But  misery  is  not  the  only  thing  that  loves  company. 
Joy  loves  company.  When  the  woman  found  the  piece 
of  silver  which  she  had  lost  she  called  her  friends  and 
neighbors  together  to  rejoice  with  her.  That  is  what 
the  Home  Board  has  done  to-day, — called  her  neighbors 
and  her  friends  to  rejoice  with  her,  and  they  are  here  to 
do  it  with  all  their  hearts ;  and  I  take  it  that  there  is  no 
one  of  theiti  nearer,  and,  I  trust,  dearer  to  the  Board 
of  Home  Missions  than  the  Board  of  Education.  The 
Board  of  Home  Missions  early  felt  its  need  of  the  Board 
of  Education,  and  a  friend  in  need  is  always  a  friend 
indeed.  The  Board  of  Home  Missions  wanted  men  ; 
they  found  it  hard  to  get  them ;  and  they  said,  "  We 
must  have  an  educating  board  to  furnish  us  men." 
They  could  have  got  men  of  a  certain  stamp,  but 
they  could  not  get  the  men  they  wanted  and  the  men 
that    they  imperatively    required.      For    anyone    who 

180 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  181 

knows  anything  about  the  home  mission  work  knows 
that  it  is  of  no  use  to  send  to  the  front  those  who  are 
not  in  every  sense  of  the  word  men, — men  of  God  and 
thoroughly  furnished  to  do  the  work  of  God.  This  is 
tiie  function  and  the  glory  of  the  Board  of  Education  to 
give  to  the  Church  well  furnished,  thoroughly  edu- 
cated men.  These  are  the  only  men  to  send  to  the  front. 
The  well  organized  and  rich  and  quietly  going  churches 
of  the  East  can  sometimes  carry  a  dull  man,  carry  him 
for  some  time ;  those  churches  out  there  on  the  frontier 
can't  and  won't.  They  must  have  strong  men  and  they 
must  have  men  who  are  thoroughly  educated  to  meet 
the  peculiar  conditions  under  which,  in  the  providence 
of  God,  they  are  placed.  Brethren,  this  is  a  good  op- 
portunity for  me  to  say  that  there  are  certain  persons 
Avho  know  very  little,  who  are  exceedingly  ignorant 
of  the  facts  in  the  case  (God  pity  their  ignorance  !),  who 
have  some  way  or  other  got  it  into  their  heads  that  the 
furnishing  of  help,  of  pecuniary  help,  to  a  man  while 
he  is  preparing  for  the  ministry  takes  out  his  manhood  ; 
that  he  cannot  go  into  the  ministry  quite  the  man  he 
would  be  if  he  had  stubbornly  refused  to  take  one  cent 
of  the  church's  money.  I  have  often  wished  that  if  it 
w^ere  right  the  names  might  be  published, — the  names 
of  those  ministers  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  who  have 
received  aid,  and  the  names  of  those  who  have  not.  I 
will  not  say  whether  I  received  aid  or  not,  but  I  would 
rather  be  in  the  list  of  those  who  have.  Some  of  these 
men  I  have  seen  and  known  personally.  It  was  my 
privilege  for  ten  years  to  be  chairman  of  the  Synod's 


182  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

Committee  of  Home  Missions  in  Michigan.  I  used  to 
go  among  these  men.  I  used  to  go  into  their  homes.  I 
used  to  see  them  at  their  work,  and  I  had  then  awakened 
in  me  an  admiration  for  them,  a  respect  for  them,  and  an 
estimate  of  them,  which  I  have  carried  all  through  my 
life,  and  which  has  always  made  me  feel  that  they  are 
the  men  whom  the  Church  ought  to  honor  above  all 
others. 

We  are  here  to-day  to  congratulate  the  Board  of  Home 
Missions.  Well,  its  history  for  one  hundred  years  is 
the  best  congratulation.  That  tells  the  story.  AVhat  a 
glorious  record  it  is  !  It  has  entered  into  the  life  of  the 
nation.  It  has  molded  the  people.  We  are  so  different 
from  what  we  would  have  been  had  it  not  been  for  what 
home  missions  have  done  for  us.  We  recognize  the 
perils  which  confront  us  at  the  present  time.  Dear  Dr. 
Cyrus  Dixon  (how  well  I  remember  his  sayings  on  the 
platform  of  the  General  Assembly)  said  in  his  own 
inimitable  way,  "  The  nations  of  the  earth  have  lifted 
up  their  feet  and  are  come  hither."  How  true  it  was ; 
and  they  are  lifting  them  up  still.  Oh,  this  ceaseless 
tramp,  tramp,  tramp,  as  the  peoples  of  all  the  world 
come  up  upon  our  shores  !  Can  we  stand  it  ?  Can  we 
endure  the  strain  ?  Can  we  assimilate  them  ?  These  are 
the  questions  that  often  worry  us,  trouble  us,  bring  us 
to  our  knees  before  God.  Yes,  brethren,  given  another 
hundred  years  of  home  missions  like  the  hundred  years 
that  are  gone,  and  all  will  be  well.  That  is  the  hope, — as 
has  been  said  more  than  once  here  this  afternoon, — 
that  is  the  hope  of  the  nation.     Well  may  the  President 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  183 

of  these  United  States,  the  heud  and  representative  of 
the  nation,  come  here  to-night,  perhaps  at  much  incon- 
venience, to  speak  his  word  in  praise  and  recognition  of 
home  missions.  He,  and  men  hke  him,  discerning  men, 
men  wise  to  know  the  times,  realize  that  this  is  the  hope 
of  the  nation,  and  that  it  is  the  only  hope  of  the  nation. 
Oh,  if  rich  Christians,  all  rich  Christians,  realized  it  to 
the  full !  Brethren,  you  know  that  in  these  days  money 
is  being  poured  out  like  water  for  secular  education,  for 
the  endowment  of  non-religious  universities  and  colleges, 
and  the  establishment  of  non-religious  libraries.  There 
is  a  peril  facing  us,  not  the  peril  of  ignorance,  but  the 
peril  of  Godless  education.  The  institutions  and  the 
men  and  women  who,  with  all  their  education,  spell 
God  with  a  small  g.  The  salvation  of  the  country  is 
not  in  education,  it  is  in  Christian  education,  in  the  very 
education  that  this  Board  of  Home  Missions  is  givino- 
the  country  to-day,  and  has  been  giving  the  country  for 
one  hundred  years,  in  the  pulpit  and  in  the  school.  Oh, 
that  there  might  be  a  revival  of  giving  in  the  direction 
of  supporting  missions,  home  missions  !  Foreign  mis- 
sions will  take  care  of  themselves  if  home  missions  are 
supported  to  the  extent  and  in  the  way  they  ought  to  be. 
God  bless  the  Board  of  Home  Missions.  The  Board 
of  Education  is  glad  to  give  you  men,  glad  to  give  you 
the  best  men  we  have.  We  wish  we  had  more  to  give 
you.  We  wish  you  had  the  money  to  take  more.  God 
bless  the  Board  of  Home  Missions.  God  bless  the  Secre- 
taries, those  of  to-day.  Ah,  what  secretaries  the  Board 
lias  had  in  all  its  history  !    Henry  Kendall  !    What  a 


184  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

giant !  What  a  general  !  He  made  an  epoch  in  the 
Church  of  God  in  home  missions.  Let  us  thank  God 
for  these  men,  let  us  thank  him  for  those  men  upon  the 
Board  of  Directors  who  give  their  time  and  their  brains 
without  a  cent  of  compensation  in  the  service  of  God 
and  the  Church  and  the  country.  God  bless  the  mis- 
sionaries and  their  wives.  He  only  knows  how  much 
their  wives  have  to  do  with  their  success  under  the  con- 
ditions in  which  they  are  placed.  And  God  be  thanked 
for  the  Church  which  stands  behind  the  Board  of  Home 
Missions  and  gives  it  the  sinews  of  war, — money.  And 
last,  but  not  least,  let  us  thank  him  to-day  for  the  prayer 
of  faith  in  the  nation's  God,  which  is  ever  going  up  from 
our  churches  and  our  homes. 


FROiNI  THE  BOARD  OF  PUBLICATION  AND 
SABBATH-SCHOOL  WORK 

BY  THE 

HON.  EGBERT   N.  WILLSON 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 


3Ir.  Iloderator : — 

The  Board  of  Publication  and  Sabbath-school  Work, 
which  I  have  the  honor  of  representing  on  this  memo- 
rable occasion,  sends  its  most  cordial  greetings  to  its 
older  sister  in  the  work  of  evangelization — the  Board 
of  Home  Missions. 

The  hundred  years  which  have  passed  since  our 
Church  organized  this  agency  have  been  full  of  won- 
drous events.  The  map  of  the  world  has  been  changed 
again  and  again.  Inventions  have  added  to  the  com- 
forts of  life,  have  made  transportation  and  commerce 
easy,  have  changed  days  into  minutes  by  the  power  of 
steam  and  electricity,  and  have  put  within  the  reach  of 
Christian  effort  populations  which  were  once  so  remote 
or  iuaccessible  as  hardly  to  be  within  any  plans  of 
work.  Meanwhile  our  own  country  has  passed  from  a 
state  of  youth  and  a  comparatively  untried  experiment 
of  government  to  a  state  of  immense  prosperity,  of 
enormous  dimensions,  and  of  a  confidence  in  its  own 

185 


186  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

strength  whicli  challenges  dispute.  The  Christian 
Cluirch,  the  Presbyterian  Church,  has  not  during  this 
centur)-  of  material  progress  been  indifferent  to  the  op- 
portunities which  Providence  has  opened.  Though  it 
cannot,  alas  !  be  truthfully  said  that  the  duties  resting 
upon  Christian  j)eople  to  provide  the  gospel  and  suit- 
able religious  privileges  for  the  population  which  has 
during  all  these  years  been  pushing  its  way  through  the 
forests,  over  the  prairies,  and  across  rivers  and  moun- 
tains toward  the  setting  sun,  have  been  fulfilled,  yet 
much,  very  much,  has  been  done  to  that  end.  The 
home  missionary  has  j)ressed  hard  upon  the  rear  of  the 
advancing  host  of  the  eager,  earnest,  but  ofttimes  reck- 
less and  godless  pioneers,  who  have  sought  gold,  or  har- 
vests, or  homes  in  the  West,  until  further  advance  has 
been  halted  by  the  waters  of  the  broad  l^acific. 

The  story  of  what  such  missionaries  have  done  ;  of 
what  privations  they  have  suffered ;  of  what  Christian 
courage  and  faith  they  have  exhibited ;  of  A\hat  they 
have  contributed  toward  the  morality,  manliness, 
patriotism,  and  religious  life  of  vast  sections  of  our 
country  now  densely  populated — that  story  has,  per- 
haps, never  been  adequately  told.  The  frontier  lifi^  has 
had  peculiar  features  and  perils  which  those  of  us  who 
have  spent  our  years  in  the  East  have  never  fully  com- 
prehended. What  these  would  have  brought  of  calamity 
and  evil,  had  not  the  home  missionary  been  at  hand  to 
recall  early  home  training  and  associations  and  to  speak 
the  gospel  message  to  the  pioneers  on  the  outj)osts  of 
civilization,  it  would  be  difficult  to  describe.     God  only 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  187 

knows.  Ha])pily,  there  are  abuiulant  testimonials  all 
over  the  territory  which  was  once  home  mission  ground, 
in  prosperous  churches,  orderly  communities,  and  warm 
Christian  hearts  and  earnest  lives,  that  the  gospel  was 
faithfully  preached  by  the  pioneer  missionary,  and  that 
his  influence  was  a  potent  factor  in  the  development 
of  the  best  thought  and  life.  In  all  this  work  the 
Home  Mission  Committees  and  Board  of  our  Presby- 
terian Church  have  been  conspicuous  for  their  wisdom, 
energy,  perseverance,  and  success.  For  their  abundant 
labors,  so  signally  blessed  by  the  great  Head  of  the 
Church,  and  for  the  consecrated  lives  and  great  useful- 
ness of  the  many  thousands  of  missionaries  who  have 
modestly,  and  frequently  in  destitution,  for  Christ's 
sake,  spent  their  years  in  trying  to  reach  and  save  their 
frontier  brothers,  it  is  eminently  fitting  that  the  great 
Presbyterian  Church  should  this  day,  through  its  repre- 
sentatives, express  its  profound  gratitude  to  almighty 
God  for  the  guidance  and  success  which  he  has  given 
to  this  work. 

In  this  thanksgiving  the  Board  which  I  represent 
can  with  peculiar  appropriateness  take  part,  for  our 
work,  in  reaching  homes  and  organizing  Sunday  schools, 
frequently  precedes  that  of  the  home  missionary. 
During  the  past  fourteen  years  over  600  Presbyterian 
Churches  have  grown  out  of  these  Sunday  schools  and 
been  taken  in  a  very  large  proportion  under  the  care  of 
the  Home  Mission  Board.  We  take  pleasure  in  testif\-- 
ing  not  only  to  the  fraternal  relations  which  have  always 
existed  between  these  two  agencies  of  our  Church,  but 


188  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

also  to  the  high  degree  of  fidelity  and  -wisdom  with 
which  the  affairs  of  home  missions  have  been  conducted. 

So  much  for  the  past.  AVhat  shall  be  said  of  the 
present  and  future  of  the  home  mission  work  ?  It  seems 
to  me  that  no  proper  conclusion  can  be  reached  upon 
that  point  without  a  full  recognition  of  the  part  which 
Providence  seems  to  have  assigned  to  our  nation  in  the 
great  drama  of  history.  There  is  a  natural  disposition, 
no  doubt,  out  of  mere  sentiment,  to  exalt  one's  estimate 
of  his  own  country  and  of  its  relative  importance. 
Stripping  ourselves,  however,  of  any  such  emotion,  is  it 
not  just  to  say,  with  cool  and  good  reason,  that  the 
United  States  of  America  not  only  occupies  an  altogether 
unique  position  in  the  family  of  nations,  but  that  it  pos- 
sesses characteristics  and  powers  which  must  give  to  it 
strong  influence  in  determining  the  policies  and  move- 
ments which  yet  lie  sleeping  in  the  womb  of  the  future  ? 

If  I  mistake  not,  many,  perhaps  most,  of  the  present 
difficult  problems  of  the  world, — social,  moral,  and  relig- 
ious,— are  to  be  worked  to  a  solution  in  our  midst.  Here 
are  the  greatest  industries.  Here  is  the  granary  of  the 
world,  hardly  yet  encroached  upon  sufficiently  to  be  felt. 
Here  is  a  domain  waiting  for  a  population  large  enough 
to  be  called  scattering.  Here  are  natural  and  artificial 
means  of  travel  and  transportation  which  tie  together 
two  oceans  in  close  contact.  Here  there  are  the  spirit 
and  faculty  of  discovery  and  invention,  which  readily 
meet  a  material  want  with  an  appropriate  remedy. 

Here  is  accumulating,  also,  either  for  weal  or  woe — 
who  knows? — that  vast  aggregation  of  wealth,  which 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  189 

may  soon  bring,  if  it  has  not  already  brought,  the  center 
of  financial  strength  from  the  Old  AYorld  to  the  New. 

But  still  another  fact  exists,  which  differentiates  this 
nation  from  every  other  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  Amer- 
ica— preeminently,  the  United  States  of  America — is 
the  gathering  place  of  the  peoples  of  the  world.  In  no 
other  land  than  ours  will  the  future  see  what  history  has 
never  exhibited  to  a  like  degree,  viz.,  a  composite  race, 
assimilated  from  a  mixture  of  Anglo-Saxon,  Celt,  Scan- 
dinavian, Russian,  and  many  other  sources.  The  time 
will  come,  not  many  generations  hence,  unless  all  present 
signs  shall  fail,  when  it  will  not  be  possible  to  speak  of 
our  people  as  Anglo-Saxons.  We — or,  rather,  they  who 
shall  then  live — will  be  of  a  mixed  race,  into  which  will 
have  entered  characteristics  derived  from  various  con- 
stituent elements.  What  will  the  race  be  ?  What  will  it 
be  good  for?  Will  it  work  in  the  line  of  God's  plan 
for  the  redemption  of  the  world,  or  will  it  be  sordid, 
irreverent,  and  impious  ? 

I  believe  that  the  new  race,  compacted  out  of  the  ele- 
ments now  in  process  of  fusion,  will  be  virile,  earnest, 
and  aggressive.  But  if  its  powers  are  to  be  used  for 
good  and  progress,  the  energy  of  the  gospel  and  the 
sweet  influence  of  Christ's  love  and  life  must  infuse  the 
mass,  and  leaven  it  into  a  healthful  and  fruitful  life. 

Into  this  heterogeneous  mass  of  various  racial  ele- 
ments now  existing  and  rapidly  accumulating  in  our 
land,  largely  in  its  newer  and  outlying  portions,  the 
home  missionary  should  go  with  the  message  of  love 
and  salvation,  and  the  example  of  a  Christian  life  and 


I'JO  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

upriglit  comluct.  Unsanctified,  not  controlled  by  Chris- 
tian princii)los,  the  strange,  unregulated  people  of  for- 
eign lands,  many  of  whom  have  learned  by  lessons  of 
oppression  and  wrong  to  hate  governments  and  to 
di'spisc  laws,  \vill  prove  to  be  a  menace  to  religion  and 
civil  order.  Every  patriot  owes  it  to  his  country,  if  he 
has  no  higher  motive,  and  every  Christian  owes  it  to  his 
God  and  Saviour,  to  do  what  he  can  by  sustaining  mis- 
sionary work  in  our  own  land,  to  save  it  from  infidelity, 
anarchy,  and  vice. 

The  future  can  be  saved — I  believe  it  will  be  saved — 
from  the  wreck  and  ruin  which  will  come  from  a  failure 
to  send  the  gospel  to  our  own  people  and  to  those  who 
come  here  for  refuge  and  for  homes. 

No  cause  should  appeal  to  us,  Christians  and  Presby- 
terians, more  strongly  than  the  home  mission  work.  All 
the  ao-encics  of  our  Church  should  work  tofjethcr  like 
the  fingers  of  a  man's  hand.  But  let  us  not  fail  to  re- 
member that  the  capacity  for  work  in  any  direction  will, 
in  the  long  run,  depend  upon  the  vigor  and  vitality  of 
the  home  work  and  the  home  church. 

There  is  yet  much  to  be  done  in  this  fair,  broad  land 
of  ours  for  its  elevation  and  Christianization.  The 
strange  people  of  the  mountains  in  some  of  the  older 
States  appeal  for  help  in  the  plaintive  tones  which  come 
from  those  who  feel  that  they  have  lost  a  treasure  Avhich 
once  belonged  to  their  ancestors. 

The  remnants  of  the   Indian  aborigines,  with   their 
imperfectly  recognized  claim  upon  the  American  people ; ' 
the  Alaskans,  rude  and  degraded,  who  yet  manifest  an 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  11)1 

appetite  for  better  things  and  a  real  capaeily  for  educa- 
tion and  improved  conditions ;  the  foreign  born  at  the 
mines  or  on  the  farms  ;  the  native  born,  who  yet  dwell 
in  undeveloped  parts  of  our  country,  where  neither 
numbers  nor  possessions  have  furnished  opportunities 
of  religious  instruction  and  worship ;  tliat  peculiar  peo- 
})lc  to  be  found  in  large  parts  of  our  western  territory, 
wiio  mingle  a  sort  of  Oriental  mysticism,  passion,  and 
ignorance  with  a  remarkable  energy  and  ambition  for 
j)ower — all  these  form  a  basis  for  an  appeal  to  American 
Christians,  and  especially  to  those  of  our  own  Church, 
to  double  our  eflPorts,  to  rally  around  the  banner  which 
Christ  has  set  for  us  and  enriched  with  the  color  of  his 
own  blood,  and  to  pledge  ourselves  to  an  earnest,  per- 
sistent, prayerful  effort  to  make  the  new  century  of 
home  mission  work  so  rich,  full,  and  successful  that, 
before  the  cycle  sliall  have  run  its  course,  our  country 
shall  stand  forth  among  the  nations  of  the  world,  not 
only  Christian  in  name,  but  Christian  in  fact,  influence, 
and  life. 

God  grant  that  our  own  beloved  Church  may  be  a 
broad  channel  through  which  the  divine  blessing  may 
flow  upon  our  country  and  the  world  ! 


FEOM   TPIE   BOARD   OF   MINISTERIAL 
RELIEF 

BY  THE 

HON.  ROBERT  H.  SMITH 
Baltimore,  Md. 


Mr.  Moderator : 

I  think  I  have  caught  the  spirit  of  this  gathering. 
I  rather  incline  to  think  that  the  short  speaker  is 
the  popular  speaker  to-day.  I  am  after  popularity. 
I  think,  although  many  of  you  have  bald  heads  and 
more  of  you  have  gray  heads,  you  are  only  children 
grown  up.  A  few  years  ago  I  was  addressing  some 
children  one  evening  in  Baltimore,  and  it  grew  quite 
late  before  I  was  called  upon  to  speak,  about  tlie 
time  the  children  are  usually  going  to  bed.  I  knew  I 
had  a  problem  before  me  to  keep  those  children  awake, 
and  there  was  a  clock  on  the  wall,  as  there  is  facing 
me  now  (and  I  am  going  to  watch  it,  too),  and  I  said 
to  those  children,  "  I  am  going  to  stop  at  five  minutes 
of  nine.  If  I  do  not  stop  at  that  time  you  give  me 
some  kind  of  a  signal,  you  call  out  Amen."  I  began  to 
speak.  I  got  quite  interested.  I  spoke  for  a  little  while 
and  then  I  thought  I  would  look  at  the  clock.  I  was 
safe  ;  my  time  was  not  yet  up.  All  right.  Then  I 
started  off  again  and  I  forgot  myself,  and  presently  a 
little  girl  piped  out  over  in  the  corner,  "  Amen  !"     And 

192 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  193 

I  stoi^ped.     I  say  you  are  very  much  like  that  little 
girl ;  you  want  short  speakers  this  afternoon. 

INIr.  Moderator,  I  am  commissioned  to  bring  to  the 
Board  of  Home  ]\Iissions  to-day  the  congratulations  of 
the  Board  of  Ministerial  Relief.  This  is  a  family  gather- 
ing. We  have  invited  in  a  few  of  our  neighbors,  as  has 
been  said,  our  Episcopal  neighbor  and  our  Baptist  neigh- 
bor, and  so  on.  But  it  is  rather  a  family  gathering. 
The  moderator  said  he  thought  that  brotherhood  was  the 
spirit  of  Christianity  to-day.  I  think  it  is  sisterhood. 
We  speak  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions — "  she,"  and 
the  Board  of  so  and  so — "  she."  They  seem  to  be  all 
daughters  in  this  family  of  the  Presbyterian  Clun-c]i. 
We  have  come  in  this  afternoon  to  brine:  our  conffratu- 
lations  to  the  oldest  sister,  the  oldest  sister  in  the  family 
— a  hundred  years  old.  I  do  not  see  the  birthday  cake 
round  here  to-day.  They  usually  have  a  cake,  you 
know,  on  a  birthday,  with  so  many  candles  on  it.  I  do 
not  see  the  cake  with  the  hundred  candles.  Perhaps 
they  are  saving  it  up  for  Carnegie  Hall  to-night,  or  per- 
haps this  lady  is  a  little  modest  and  does  not  want  to 
keep  her  age  so  prominent  as  to  burn  a  hundred 
candles  here  this  afternoon.  But  let  me  say  to  you, 
Mr.  ]\Ioderator,  in  all  candor  and  sincerity,  that  the 
Board  of  Ministerial  Relief  brings  very  hearty  congratu- 
lations to  the  Board  of  Home  Missions,  her  oldest  sister. 
I  think  it  is  unfortunate  that  it  should  have  fallen  to  me 
to  have  to  bring  these  greetings.  I  think  it  rather  should 
have  been  that  gentleman  sitting  down  in  the  pew  there, 
Dr.  Agnew,  who  knows  so  much  more  about  ministerial 

13 


194  CENTENNIAL   OE  HOME  MISSIONS 

relief  and  home  missions  than  I  do ;  but  he  is  a  very 
modest  man,  and,  while  we  urged  him  to  come,  he  de- 
clined. I  think  it  would  have  been  well  if  you  had  had 
Dr.  Samuel  T.  Lowrie,  venerable  and  dignified  and 
faithful  to  the  cause  of  ministerial  relief.  He  could 
have  brought  these  greetings  to-day.  Bnt  it  has  fallen 
upon  me.  I  do  not  know  why,  unless  my  head  is  gray 
and  my  body  is  young. 

Now  all  these  men  whom  I  have  mentioned — Dr. 
Agnew,  Dr.  Lowrie,  Dr.  Knox,  Mr.  Bartlett,  the  presi- 
dent, and  other  gentlemen — would  have  been  glad  to- 
day to  have  been  here  and  to  have  joined  in  the  cele- 
bration of  this  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  Board  of 
Home  Missions.  But  do  you  know,  when  I  come  to 
think  of  it,  it  is  not  so  much  their  congratulations  that 
I  ought  to  bring  you  to-day,  heartily  as  they  do  con- 
gratulate you,  heartily  as  they  enter  into  sympathy  with 
the  work  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions, — the  Board 
of  Ministerial  Relief  has  a  constituency  that  I  believe 
will  send  you  more  hearty  congratulations  even  than  the 
members  of  this  Board.  You  have  already  been  told 
that  the  Board  of  Ministerial  Relief  has  had  upon  its 
rolls  this  last  year  over  nine  hundred  names.  The  most 
interesting  fact,  I  think,  in  connection  with  that  report 
and  with  those  figures  is  this  :  140  men  who  received 
help  from  that  Board  have  passed  their  seventieth  birth- 
day, and  they  have  spent  an  average  of  forty-four  years 
in  the  ministry  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  Stop  a 
moment  and  think  about  those  140  men.  The  fact  is, 
that  a  majority  of  those  men   have  labored  under  the 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  195 

Home  Board.  The  fact  is,  that  a  majority  of  those  men 
— no,  I  will  say  all  of  those  men — are  rejoicing  to-day 
in  what  has  been  accomplished  through  this  Board. 
But  a  majority  of  them  rejoice  in  the  fact  that  they  have 
their  part,  and  not  a  small  part  either,  in  accomplish- 
ing what  has  been  done  by  the  Board  of  Home  Mis- 
sions in  this  line.  Tliose  men  have  done  their  work, 
but  they  have  not  forgotten  the  work  they  did,  nor 
have  they  forgotten  the  Board  under  which  they  worked. 
They  rejoice  that  she  has  been  able  to  accomplish  what 
she  has  done,  and  they  send  their  hearty  congratulations 
and  pray,  as  I  know  they  do,  every  one  of  them,  and 
pray  that  the  hundred  years  to  come  shall  see  greater 
things  accomplished  by  this  Board  than  the  hundred 
years  that  are  past.  But  there  is  a  larger  company 
than  that.  There  are  some  200  men,  many  of  whom, 
a  majority  of  whom,  have  worked  under  the  Board  of 
Home  Missions,  who  are  laid  aside,  with  broken  health, 
with  shattered  nerves,  who  are  unable  to  prosecute  their 
work  further,  and  they  are  laid  aside.  They  are  receiv- 
ing help  from  the  Board  of  Ministerial  Relief.  They 
send  their  congratulations.  Do  you  imagine  that  there 
is  one  of  those  men  who  would  not  be  glad  if  to-day 
he  could  be  laboring  as  he  has  done  before,  many  of 
them  under  the  Board  of  Home  Missions,  to-day  ? 
You  have  certified,  brethren,  you  have  certified,  in  your 
presbyterial  capacities,  to  the  worthiness  of  every  one  of 
those  men,  and  if  they  are  worthy,  and  I  am  sure  they  are, 
they  would  most  gladly  be  at  their  posts  to-day  carrying 
on  this  work.     They  send  you  their  congratulations. 


FROM  THE  BOARD  OF  CHURCH  ERECTION 

BY  THE 

KEY.  DAVID  MAGIE,  D.  D. 
Paterson,  N.  J. 


To  the  Board  of  Home  Ilissions : 
Dear  Brethren : — 

It  was  a  matter  of  deep  regret  to  me  personally,  and 
to  the  Board  of  Church  Erection,  which  laid  upon  me 
the  pleasant  duty  of  representing  them,  on  the  occasion 
of  the  celebration  by  the  General  Assembly  of  your 
completion  of  a  century  of  work,  that  owing  to  a  mis- 
understanding of  the  time,  our  Board  was  not  repre- 
sented in  the  offering  to  your  Board  the  congratulations 
of  all  the  boards  of  our  Church.  And  this  has  been  to 
our  Board  a  matter  of  even  greater  regret,  Ijecause  with 
no  other  board  is  our  work  more  intimately  and  har- 
moniously connected. 

In  offering  to  you  on  such  an  occasion  our  congratu- 
lations we  can  speak  from  an  intimate  knowledge  of 
your  officials  and  your  work.  It  has  been  your  work 
to  break  up  the  soil,  and  sow  the  seed,  and  gather  the 
harvest ;  it  has  been  our  work  to  prepare  the  buildings 
where  your  harvests  could  be  garnered  and  where  your 

196 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  197 

laborers  could  be  sheltered.  With  sucli  a  special  oppor- 
tunity to  judge  of  the  greatuess  and  value  of  your  work, 
we  offer  our  most  sincere  congratulations. 

And  it  is  with  great  pleasure  we  present  to  the  Church, 
Avhich  we  both  serve  with  one  spirit,  the  harmony  of 
purpose  and  mutual  respect  and  confidence  which  exist 
between  our  two  Boards.  We  shall  endeavor  in  the 
future,  as  in  the  past,  to  do  all  in  our  power  to  establish 
the  work  you  are  doing,  and  to  extend  and  build  up  our 
Church  in  this  land. 

One  hundred  years  of  pioneer  work  for  God  and  our 
country  call  for  grateful  remembrance.  The  wise  and 
devoted  men  who  planned  and  carried  on  this  remark- 
able work  deserve  to  be  remembered.  And  those 
faithful,  devoted  men  who,  in  hardship  and  danger, 
struggled  and  labored  and  suffered  and  died,  deserve 
honorable  remembrance  ;  and  as  truly  the  wives,  who 
in  loneliness  and  want,  sustained  their  courage  and  never 
faltered  in  service. 

If  the  past  calls  for  remembrance  and  gratitude,  the 
future  calls  for  new  consecration.  The  experience  of 
the  past,  the  full  confidence  of  the  Church,  the  memory 
of  the  noble  men  who  have  guided  your  affairs,  and  the 
assurance  that  your  work  is  in  the  hands  of  men  as 
wise  and  faithful  as  those  who  have  preceded  them,  may 
well  give  you  courage  and  stir  you  to  new  efforts.  The 
frontier  no  longer  advances  into  an  unoccupied  territory, 
but  it  is  found  in  our  cities.  The  task  before  us  is  ever 
growing  greater  and  will  require  new  efforts  and  larger 
expenditures.     To  our  Church  and  to  our  God  we  must 


198  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

look  for  the  means  to  do  a  larger  work.  The  earnest 
prayer  of  the  Board  of  Church  Erection  is  that  your 
future  work  may  be  more  glorious  and  successful  than 
the  past. 

I  remain  with  very  great  respect,  on  behalf  of  this 
board, 

David  Magie, 

Board  of  Church  Erection  Rooms.  President. 


FROM  THE  BOARD  FOR  FREEDMEN 

BY  THE 

REV.  HENRY  T.  McCLELLAND,  D.  D. 
Pittsburg,  Pa. 


Mr.  Moderator: — 

The  Board  of  Home  Missions,  aged  one  hundred 
years,  domiciled  in  the  city  of  New  York,  receives  by 
these  presents  from  the  Board  of  Missions  for  Freed- 
men,  aged  thirty-seven  years,  domiciled  in  the  city  of 
Pittsburg,  congratulations,  greetings  of  love,  and  God- 
speed. Of  all  the  noble  board  connection  we  are  your 
nearest  of  kin.  We,  to  speak  in  the  happy  vein  of  the 
people  we  represent,  to  whom  we  belong,  we  are  your 
own  little  pickaninny,  your  "  Alabama  coon."  We 
come  from  the  same  soil.  I  understand  that  sporadic- 
ally, at  least,  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  sprang  up 
in  the  alma  terra  of  sooty  Pittsburg.  We  have  been 
nourished  by  the  same  soil.  And  since  you  have  moved 
to  New  York  we  know  it  to  be  a  fact  that  you  have  often 
written  home  for  money,  and,  as  far  as  we  know,  you 
have  never  been  refused. 

We  have  followed  you  with  intense  interest  in  all  your 
noble  and  worthy  work.  True,  we  have  sometimes  thought 
in  your  career  that  you  were  growing  so  ponderous  and 

199 


200  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

great  that  wc  could  not  follow  you.  You  reminded  us 
very  much  of  a  little  incident  published  in  the  Harpers' 
Drawer  some  years  ago.  There  was  the  great  old 
"  Aunty,"  broad  and  ponderous  and  full  of  dignity, 
glorious  in  her  bandanna,  filling  up  all  the  roadway  in 
her  majesty,  and  some  fifty  feet  behind  her  came  a 
poor  little  shrivelled  pickaninny,  bow-legged,  spindle- 
shanked,  with  a  great  basket  of  clothes  on  his  head,  and 
he  piped  out  and  said,  "  Where  you  gwine,  granny  ? 
Where  you  gwine  ?  "  "  Ise  gwine  where  Ise  gwine, 
that's  where  Ise  gwine.  Aint  goin'  to  tell  you  where 
Ise  gwine.  Ise  gwine  where  Ise  gwine,  that's  where 
Ise  gwine." 

We  have  sometimes  thought  that  was  the  way  it  was 
going  with  you,  because  we  thought  there  was  more 
grass  in  your  grandfather's  meadow  than  in  all  the 
alkali  plains  of  the  West,  and  we  thought  that  per- 
haps there  is  more  true  home  missionary  country  to 
the  square  inch  in  the  sunny  Southland  than  there 
is  where  they  drive  dog  sleds  for  a  thousand  miles 
without  seeing  the  face  of  man.  That's  all  right.  We 
believe  in  home  missions,  and  we  pray  you  God  speed. 
They  do  not  neglect  us.  We  get  plenty  of  money 
at  home,  and,  in  common  with  all  the  good  board 
family,  we  have  the  same  great  Church  to  appeal  to, 
the  same  General  Assembly  to  come  up  and  recom- 
mend us  year  after  year  for  ample  gifts  for  all  our 
work.  We  ought  not  to  be  jealous,  for  there  is  far  more 
pabulum  in  our  sources  of  supply  than  we  ever  can  get, 
both  of  us  tog(jther,  and  there  is  a  great  deal  more  than 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  201 

Avo  could  ever  assimilate,  even  if  we  did  obtain  it.  So 
\vc  thank  God  and  take  courage  because  you  are  going 
on.  AVe  are  only  thirty-seven  years  old  and  you  are  a 
hundred,  and  it  always  makes  the  younger  members  of 
the  family  feel  happy  to  see  the  vigor  of  the  older  mem- 
bers, their  longevity.  But  if  you  are  so  vigorous  at  the 
age  of  one  hundred,  what  may  we  not  hope  to  be  ?  We 
are  thankful  here  that  the  vista  which  your  progress  and 
success  have  afforded  us  does  not,  by  any  means,  shorten 
your  own. 

There  is  a  tie  that  we  wish  to  mention  here.  There 
is  another, — "she"  is  a  "sister."  Long  ago,  in  the  Holy 
Land,  from  the  fat  uplands  of  Galilee,  on  the  blue  marge 
of  that  glorious  lake  where  Jesus  walked  and  talked, 
there  were  certain  women  who  ministered  of  their  sub- 
stance to  the  King  and  Head,  the  greatest  of  all  home 
missionaries ;  and  there  are,  in  this  land  and  in  our 
beloved  Church,  certain  other  women,  a  glorious  and 
mighty  company,  who  are  perpetuating  in  prayers  and 
gifts  rich  and  full,  and  increasing  this  glorious  service. 
They  bear  your  name  and  ours  together.  This  is  an 
alliance  material  for  the  progress  of  our  common  work. 
It  is  an  alliance  spiritual,  which  promises  glorious  results 
in  the  years  to  come.  You  are  indeed  flesh  of  our  flesh, 
bone  of  our  bone,  soul  of  our  soul. 

Our  common  interests  make  us  wondrous  kind  to 
one  another.  The  specific  differences  in  our  work 
also  afford  a  means  of  calling  out  our  affection,  one  for 
the  other.  We  of  the  Freedmen's  Board  are  not  blind 
to  the  side  that  you  see  in  your  vision  of  consecration 


202  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

fur  the  Master.  "We  also  see  outstretched  hands  that 
outvie  in  number  and  in  strange  shapes  the  hands  in 
Vedder's  ilhistration  of  the  Kubaiyat  of  Omar  Khay- 
yam, and  we  hear  voices  that,  to  the  uninitiated,  out- 
jargon  a  thousand  times  the  cries  that  were  heard  on 
Pentecost.  We  hear  these  multitudinous  voices  from 
many  native-born  in  our  own  land  and  from  strange 
peoples  gathering  here  freely  from  many  lands.  We 
on  our  own  part  hear  with  devout  insight  and  sym- 
pathy every  day  and  hour  one  great  minor  strain  that, 
coming  from  the  Southland,  overwhelms  us  with 
pathetic  insistence  and  with  a  divine  call.  I  say  that 
the  peculiarities  of  our  work, — yours  continental,  ours 
provincial ;  yours  diversified  and  extensive,  ours  con- 
centrated and  intense, — only  makes  our  love  for  one 
another  and  our  prayers  more  earnest  and  sincere.  We 
thank  God  for  your  history,  that  under  the  imperial 
Christ  you  have  had  generals  greater  than  ever  gathered 
about  the  great  Napoleon  ;  that  you  have  had  soldiers 
out  on  the  firing  line  and  about  the  heart  of  the  im])erial 
Christ  braver  than  the  soldiers  of  any  "Old  Guard" 
that  ever  fought  the  world's  battles.  We  thank  God 
that  the  star  of  your  destiny  has  had  a  hundred  years' 
dawn.  We  pray  that  that  star  may  rise  tlirough  all 
the  years  to  come,  and  shine  through  all  the  lands,  so 
that  as  your  prayer  is  and  ours  with  you,  this  land  of 
ours  shall  become  a  basis  of  cosmopolitan  supply,  and 
all  the  world  through  us  may  hear  of  Christ  in  the  sim- 
plicity of  the  gospel  and  in  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit. 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  203 

We  bring  you  onr  greetings.  God  bless  you,  in- 
crease your  facilities,  multiply  your  agencies,  and  God 
bless  us  that  avc  may  stand  in  our  lot  till  the  end  of  the 
days,  and  that  our  crowns  together  may  be  cast  at  the 
feet  of  him  who  loves  the  white  man  wherever  he  is 
born  and  from  whatever  clime  he  comes,  and  M'ho  loves 
the  black  man  with  his  heart  of  hearts. 


FROM  THE  BOARD  OF  AID  FOR  COLLEGES 

BY  THE 

REV.  HERRICK  JOHNSON,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 
Chicago,  III. 


Mr.  Moderator  and  Brethren : — 

The  last  of  the  boards  and  the  youngest,  the  Ben- 
jamin of  the  family,  brings  to  the  oldest  brother 
hearty  greeting  and  the  most  joyful  congratulations. 
The  youngest  brother,  the  Board  of  College  Aid,  is  only 
eighteen  years  old  and  still  in  his  teens,  while  a  cen- 
tury's record  has  been  made  by,  and  a  century's  honors 
are  on  the  head  of,  our  oldest  brother,  Home  Missions. 

This  is  called  a  "  Fellowship  Meeting."  It  is  well 
named,  for  there  is  not  only  a  wideness,  but  a  oneness  of 
interest  represented  here  to-day.  All  our  Church  Boards 
are  unified  in  the  great  commission  :  "  Go  ye  into  all  the 
world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  the  whole  creation." 
These  boards  are  the  missionary  scheme  embodied  in  or- 
ganization for  the  purpose  of  going  into  all  the  world  and 
preacliing  the  gospel  to  the  whole  creation,  and  though 
only  three  of  them  are  named  mission  boards,  they  all  are 
missionary  in  spirit  and  organized  for  the  express  purpose 
of  giving  the  gospel  to  the  whole  creation,  and  without 
this  there  would  be  no  justification  for  their  existence. 

Home  missions  was  organized  one  hundred  years  ago, 

204 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  205 

and  the  first  in  the  field.  For  the  gospel  must  begin  to 
be  preached  at  Jerusalem.  What  followed  next? 
Ministerial  education.  Presbyterians  believe  in  cul- 
ture, in  discipline,  in  scholarship.  They  believe  that 
as  error  is  championed  by  the  ripest  scholarship,  truth 
must  be  alike  championed  or  leave  the  field.  Whatever 
foundations  may  be  laid,  and  whatever  imposing  super- 
structure may  be  reared,  if  in  the  building  work  you  do 
not  hear  the  constant  click  of  the  intellectual  trowel, 
and  the  constant  ring  of  the  intellectual  hammer,  some- 
thing is  the  matter  with  the  building  work.  So  we  want 
men  of  education. 

What  followed  that  ?  Foreign  missions.  For  the 
Church  of  God  in  this  land  could  not  keep  between 
these  two  seas  and  obey  Christ. 

Publication  the  same  year.  Why  ?  Because  the  ob- 
ligation to  preach  the  gospel  by  the  living  voice  carried 
with  it  the  obligation  to  preach  it  by  metallic  type,  and 
through  the  publication  boards  we  are  scattering  the 
gospel  as  the  leaves  of  the  morning. 

Church  erection  next,  because  the  mission  church 
must  have  a  house  in  which  to  worship. 

Ministerial  relief  followed,  because  after  a  fight  of 
years,  enduring  great  hardship  as  good  soldiers  of 
Jesus  Christ,  these  scarred  and  war-worn  veterans 
needed  to  be  cared  for  in  their  old  age,  seeing  that 
during  all  the  years  of  their  activity  and  service  they 
have   scarcely  had  a  salary  to  keep   them  from  want. 

So  these  eight  boards  arch  the  ministerial  life  from 
the  cradle  to  the  grave. 


206  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  3IISSI0NS 

The  Board  of  College  Aid  builds  the  college,  the 
Christian  college,  that  is  fitted  to  rear  the  Christian 
missionary.  The  Board  of  Education  helps  that  man 
through  the  college.  Tlie  Boards  of  Home  Missions  and 
Foreign  Missions  and  Freedmen  locate  that  man  and 
give  him  a  field.  The  Board  of  Publication  arms  and 
equips  him  for  service.  The  Board  of  Church  Erection 
gives  him  a  house  of  worship,  and  the  Board  of  Minis- 
terial Relief  tenderly  and  lovingly  cares  for  him  in  his 
old  age.  This  is  the  unity  of  the  boards.  They  are  our 
missionary  scheme,  you  see,  embodied  in  organization. 
Mission  boards  all  of  them.  Each  has  its  own  work. 
The  eye  cannot  say  to  the  ear,  "  I  have  no  need  of 
thee."  The  hand  cannot  say  to  the  foot,  "  I  have  no 
need  of  thee."  Home  missions  cannot  say  to  Education, 
"  I  have  no  need  of  thee."  Foreign  missions  cannot  say 
to  the  Board  of  College  Aid,  "  I  have  no  need  of  thee." 
The  hand  cannot  do  the  foot's  work.  The  ear  cannot  do 
the  eye's  work.  Put  a  leg  where  the  arm  is.  Lodge  it 
in  the  socket  at  the  shoulder,  and  what  kind  of  effi- 
ciency would  you  have  ?  Brethren  of  all  the  boards,  keep 
to  your  own  fields.  Do  your  own  work.  Let  us  each 
in  his  own  place  meet  his  responsibility. 

Then  again,  their  proportion.  If  any  man  or  board 
bulges  large  witliout  proper  consideration  of  the  inter- 
ests that  are  represented  in  the  other  boards,  he  is  get- 
ting this  system  out  of  proportion.  He  has  lost  balance, 
and  therefore  so  far  injured  the  work.  He  is  swelling 
unduly  in  one  direction  to  the  exclusion  of  this  har- 
monious and  beautiful  proportion  which  lies  in  the  com- 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  207 

prehension  of  the  whole  situation.  If  the  whole  body 
were  an  eye,  where  were  the  hearing?  If  the  whole 
were  an  ear,  where  Avere  the  smelling?  Just  think  of 
that  for  a  moment.  Suppose  home  missions  should 
absorb  the  situation,  where  would  the  foreign  field  be? 
A\"here  would  education  be  ?  Where  would  the  men 
be  that  are  to  take  the  places  in  the  home  field  and  in 
the  foreign  field  ?  If  the  whole  body  were  an  eye,  just 
conceive  what  kind  of  a  body  it  would  be — a  great, 
enormous  goggle  eye  walking  about  on  two  legs.  Sup- 
pose the  whole  body  were  an  ear,  and  what  kind  of  a 
thing  would  we  have?  An  expanding,  and  ever  ex- 
panding ear !  You  know  what  animal  we  see  that  is 
all  ear.  Samson  could  not  have  done  half  as  much  with 
a  living  ass  as  he  did  with  the  jawbone  of  a  dead  one. 

Their  mutual  dependence.  These  eight  boards  are 
mutually  dependent  upon  one  another.  How  can  the 
home  missions  or  the  foreign  missions  get  along  without 
men  ?  How  can  they  have  the  right  men  except  they 
be  educated  ?  How  can  they  be  rightly  educated  except 
in  a  Christian  college?  And  so  we  go,  you  see,  from 
boai'd  to  board,  and  place  to  place,  and  reason  to  rea- 
son, and  we  find  them  all  interlocked,  and  interlaced, 
and  marshaled  together,  unified,  representing  a  single 
interest.  I  remember  a  saying  by  Phelps  that  expresses 
this  relationship  very  beautifully  with  respect  to  two  of 
these  boards.  He  said  in  a  very  impressive  way  :  "  If 
I  were  a  missionary  in  Canton,  I  would  pray  every 
morning  for  home  missions  in  America  for  the  sake  of 
Canton."     And  I  remember  reading  in  Rogers'  Essays, 


208  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

away  back  in  my  seminary  days,  an  essay  on  "  Reason 
and  Faith/'  in  which  was  another  beautiful  illustration 
of  this  same  interdependence  and  mutual  intimate  rela- 
tionship. He  represented  reason  and  faith  as  twin- 
born,  but  each,  alas,  suffering  a  sad  privation.  While 
reason  had  an  eye  of  piercing  intelligence,  his  ear  was 
closed  to  sound ;  and  while  faith  had  an  ear  of  exquisite 
delicacy,  upon  her  sightless  eyeballs  as  she  lifted  tlieni 
toward  heaven  the  sunbeams  played  in  vain.  And  so 
the  two,  hand  in  hand,  went  through  the  world,  the  eye 
of  reason  by  day  the  guide  of  faith,  and  the  ear  of  faith 
by  night  the  guide  of  reason.  So  these  benevolent  agen- 
cies of  our  beloved  Church  go  hand  in  hand,  each  meet- 
ing a  need  not  met  by  the  others,  and  all  mutually 
helpful  and  dependent. 

What  is  the  conclusion  from  all  this?  First,  brethren, 
no  pet  cause  in  a  pulpit  or  in  a  church.  An  offering 
for  every  cause.  All  the  boards  one  cause.  They 
constitute  the  arch,  as  I  have  said  once  before,  in  our 
scheme  of  Christian  benevolence.  The  Board  of  Col- 
lege Aid  puts  the  first  stone  in  the  arch  ;  the  Board 
of  Education,  the  second ;  the  Boards  of  Foreign  and 
Home  Missions  and  Freedmen,  three  great  stones  on 
beyond.  The  Board  of  Publication,  the  next.  The 
Board  of  Ministerial  Relief,  the  last.  And  there  we 
have  the  completed  arch  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave 
of  the  ministerial  life.  God  bless  the  church  that  thus 
seeks  to  honor  him  in  this  great  stewardship,  and  com- 
bines all  her  forces  in  the  effort  to  take  this  world  for 
Christ. 


FROM  HOME   MISSION  SOCIETIES 


OTHER  DENOMINATIONS 


14 


THE  AMERICAN  BAPTIST  HOME  MISSION 
SOCIETY 


BY  THE 


REV.  W.  C.  P.  EHOADES,  D.D.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
(Chairman  of  Executive  Board.) 


Mr.  Moderator,  Fathers,  and  Brethren  : — 

The  American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society  to  the 
Home  Mission  Board  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  sends 
hearty  Christian  greetings,  congratulations,  and  best 
wishes. 

As  a  society  we  cannot  report,  as  you  do  this  year,  a 
complete  century  of  splendid  service;  we  have  just  com- 
pleted our  seventieth  year.  But  as  your  work  rejoices 
and  stimulates  us,  so  may  our  work  comfort  and  encour- 
age you.  In  seventy  years  we  have  issued  more  than 
26,000  commissions  to  missionaries  and  teachers,  who 
have  reported  the  organization  of  more  than  10,000 
Sunday  schools  and  the  organization  of  5610  churches. 
They  have  baptized,  on  confession  of  their  faith,  more 
than  170,000  believers.  Since  the  establishment  of  our 
"  Gift  Fund  "  (20  years  ago)  we  have  aided  in  the  erec- 
tion of  more  than  1600  church  edifices — total  cost 
$3,500,000— with  accommodations  for  400,000  wor- 
shipers.    We   are   helping  to   maintain  more   than  30 

211 


212  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

schools  (for  negroes  and  Indians  mainly)  Avith  a  yearly 
enrollment  of  6000  pupils,  more  than  400  of  whom 
are  students  for  the  ministry.  We  are  preaching  the 
gospel,  in  their  own  tongues,  to  22  different  nation- 
alities or  peoples.  Our  field  is  North  America  and  our 
motto  is,  "  North  America  for  Christ !" 

We  join  hands  with  you  to-day  as  Christians — saved 
by  Christ,  servants  of  Christ — fellow-workers  with 
Christ  in  the  most  blessed  work  in  the  world. 

We  join  hands  with  you  as  patriots ;  for  surely  these 
societies  present  patriotism  in  its  most  perfect  form. 
If  they  are  rightly  counted  lovers  of  their  country 
who,  in  times  of  its  peril,  go  forth  with  sword  or  gun 
to  battle  for  months  or  years  (it  may  be  to  death)  against 
their  country's  foes,  how  much  more  those  who  spend  a 
lifetime  in  fighting  against  ignorance  and  ungodliness, 
the  greatest  enemies  of  every  country  and  every  home  ! 
If  they  are  rightly  counted  worthy  of  their  country's 
lasting  honor  who,  in  time  of  danger,  lay  their  fortunes 
at  her  feet  that  armies  may  be  equipped  for  her  pro- 
tection, what  shall  be  said  of  those  who  have  estab- 
lished recruiting  stations  for  righteousness  (which  ex- 
alteth  nations)  in  all  the  land ;  who  have  built  church 
forts  as  centers  of  strength  and  power  in  all  her  bor- 
ders, and  have  garrisoned  these  with  faithful  veterans 
enlisted  for  life  !  The  work  of  these  home  mission 
societies  is  unsurpassed  in  the  largeness  and  purity 
of  its  patriotism,  and  they  deserve  well  of  their 
country. 

We  join  hands  with  you  as  lovers  and  servants  of 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  213 

liunianity  itself.  The  tide  of  inuiiigration  is  again  at 
its  flood,  and  \vc  teach  and  preach  (in  our  own  huid)  in 
the  languages  of  all  the  great  nations  of  the  earth.  The 
great  problems  of  these  moving  tides  of  humanity  are 
ours  in  common  with  all  good  citizens ;  but  they  do  not 
overwhelm  us  with  despair,  for  w^e  are  confident  we  have 
their  solution.  We  are  not  of  those  who  are  with- 
out hope.  AYe  do  not  class  these  millions  with  the  few 
lawless  ones.  The  great  mass  of  those  who  have  sought 
homes  here  have  been  humble,  hard-working,  conscien- 
tious. God-fearing  men  and  w^omen.  In  politics,  in 
finances,  in  education,  in  religion,  our  country's  debt  is 
incalculably  great  to  the  nations  "whose  sons  have 
sw^armed  to  our  shores.  The  problem  for  us,  as  Chris- 
tian workers,  is  not  how  to  shut  out,  but  rather  how  to 
build  in  and  build  up.  To  those  who  are  permitted  to 
come  here  let  there  be  given  a  welcome,  warm,  thought- 
ful, helpful  ;  let  a  brotherly  interest  be  manifested  in 
their  settlement  and  welfare  ;  let  free  schools  be  pro- 
vided for  them  and  an  open  Bible  be  given  to  them — 
all  these,  together  with  the  atmosphere  of  the  kindest, 
freest,  best  country  the  sun  shines  on — and  assimilation 
will  take  care  of  itself. 

We  unite  with  you  in  prayer  for  the  perfecting  of  the 
kingdom  of  Christ  in  our  own  beloved  land  :  that  Chris- 
tians may  adorn  the  doctrine  of  God  our  Saviour  in  all 
things.  No  generation  of  Christians  ever  had  larger 
opportunities ;  no  generation  of  Christians  ever  had 
greater  resources ;  no  generation  of  Christians  ever  had 
more   solemn   responsibilities.     Our  field   is   the  most 


214  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

fascinating  of  all,  fascinating  in  its  greatness  and  in  the 
intensity  of  its  life.  Onr  field  is  the  most  important  of 
all ;  it  fills  the  eye  of  the  world  to-day  as  no  other 
country  does ;  it  appeals  to  the  imagination  and  hope 
of  the  world  as  does  no  other  country ;  it  promises 
more  to-day  than  does  any  other  country.  The  meeting 
of  the  nations  here  in  a  new  nation,  rich  in  the  experi- 
ences of  the  past,  yet  untrammeled  to  a  great  extent 
by  the  burdens  of  the  past,  unlimited  in  wealth  and 
power,  free  to  grow,  puts  us  on  our  mettle  and  challenges 
us  to  do  our  utmost.  Surely  no  field  promises  larger 
and  quicker  harvests.  We  unite  with  you  in  prayer  for 
laborers,  and  that  the  children  of  the  kingdom  may  be 
wise  and  liberal  according  to  the  opportunity.  New 
conditions  will  present  themselves  in  our  work  and  we 
must  be  ready  to  meet  them. 

Heretofore  from  scattered  cabins,  from  gathering 
hamlets,  from  growing  villages  and  towns,  and  embry- 
onic cities  the  call  has  been  heard  for  one  hundred 
years,  and  the  response  has  been  quick  and  generous. 
In  our  day  a  louder,  more  imperative  call  is  coming 
from  our  great  cities.  In  response,  an  expense  of  lov- 
ing service  and  of  money,  unknown  heretofore,  large 
beyond  the  dreams  of  the  past,  will  be  required  in  these 
coming  years  for  our  great  cities.  This  city  in  which 
you  meet  has  more  people  than  the  combined  popula- 
tion of  fourteen  great  States  and  Territories. 

Who  is  sufficient  for  these  things  ?  We  are — thank 
God  ! — we  are  through  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord. 

Greetings,  congratulations,  and  good  wishes,  I  bring 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  3ITSSI0XS  215 

you  from  a  sister  society.  We  join  hands  with  you  as 
Christians,  as  patriots,  as  lovers  and  servants  of 
humanity.  A¥e  unite  with  you  in  prayer  and  effort  for 
the  perfecting  of  the  kingdom  of  God  in  our  beloved 
country. 


CONGREGATIONAL  HOME  MISSION 
SOCIETY 

BY  THE 

EEV.  J.  B.  CLAEK,  D.D.,  New  Yoke,  N.  Y. 
(Senior  Secretary.) 


3Ir.  Mode7'ator  and  Brethren : — 

I  HAVE,  first  of  all,  a  brief  message  committed  to  me 
by  the  society  which  I  represent.  I  would  be  glad  to 
have  had  some  one  read  it  besides  myself,  but  Dr. 
Thompson  says,  "  Read  it  yourself,"  and  I  always 
obey   Dr.  Thompson. 

"  The  Congregational  Home  Missionary  Society  ex- 
tends to  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  its  most  cordial  greetings  and  congratulations 
at  this  centennial  anniversary. 

We  heartily  rejoice  in  the  splendid  growth  of  that 
beneficent  work  in  which  you  have  for  a  hundred  years, 
with  steadily  increasing  efficiency,  sought  the  evangeli- 
zation of  our  entire  country. 

We  note  with  profound  gratitude  to  almighty  God  the 
statesmanlike  sagacity  and  unwavering  devotion  of  your 
officers  and  leaders,  the  ever-increasing  generosity  of 
your  churches  as  they  have  seen  the  strategic  necessity 

216 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  217 

of  your  work,  and  the  unflinching  heroism  of  your  army 
of  missionuries  who  have  planted  the  banner  of  Christ 
in  multitudes  of  places  in  our  national  domain. 

We  rejoice  that  we  too  have  had  a  share  with  you  in 
til  is  service  of  Christian  patriotism. 

While  we  celebrated  our  diamond  jubilee  last  year, 
marking  seventy-five  years  of  our  existence  in  our  pres- 
ent form,  several  of  our  State  societies,  which  are  now 
important  factors  in  our  present  work,  were  organized 
more  than  one  hundred  years  ago,  and  their  missionaries 
were  in  the  far  west  of  that  time.  Side  by  side  with 
you  we  have  toiled  during  the  century  you  now  cele- 
brate, and  our  missionaries  have  during  that  time  ren- 
dered over  60,000  years  of  service,  organized  6650 
churches  in  every  part  of  our  republic ;  and  our 
cluirches  have  supported  the  work  by  their  offerings 
of  nearly  |21, 000,000. 

With  our  congratulations  to  you  go  our  prayers  to 
the  great  Head  of  the  Church,  that  he  will  make  your 
second  century  even  more  illustrious  than  the  first  in 
signal  usefulness.  And  may  we  continue  to  work 
together  in  the  same  loving  fellowship  as  now,  not 
rivals  but  co-laborers,  seeking  the  same  great  end,  the 
salvation  of  men,  and  a  Christian  America  that  shall 
exemplify  in  all  its  social  and  civic  life  the  ideals  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

Joseph  B.  Clark, 
Washington  Choate, 

Secretaries." 


218  CENTENyiAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

Mr.  j\[oderator  and  Brethren : — 

I  am  hapi)y  to  be  the  bearer  of  such  a  message  as 
this,  and  to  assure  you  that  it  is  something  more  than  a 
mere  form  of  words.  You  and  we  came  from  the  same 
stock,  the  good  okl  Puritan  stock.  Some  of  you  tarried 
in  the  Church,  hoping  to  redeem  it,  and  some  of  us  came 
out  without  any  such  hope  at  all.  But  we  were  both 
fighting  the  same  battle,  and  with  almost  the  same  wea- 
pons. And  that  battle  has  made  us  one  family  and  one 
fold,  with  just  a  little  difference,  perhaps,  in  our  methods 
of  housekeeping,  that  is  all.  I  doubt,  brethren,  if  any 
man,  whatever  his  theological  acumen,  going  into  one  of 
your  churches  or  into  one  of  ours  any  Lord's  day,  could 
tell  the  difference  between  them,  either  in  doctrine  or  in 
worship,  unless  he  were  exceptionally  unfortunate  in  his 
choice.  A  little  difference  in  the  emphasis  here  and 
there,  that  is  about  all  he  would  discover.  We  cannot 
forget  either,  brethren,  that  in  the  closing  days  of  the 
eighteenth  century  there  was  something  almost  like  or- 
ganic union  came  to  pass  between  us,  when  delegates  from 
your  General  Assembly  were  received  by  our  New  Eng- 
land Association,  and  delegates  from  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut  Associations  were  welcomed  by  your  Gen- 
eral Assembly  as  members,  and  when  they  discussed  the 
same  questions  on  the  same  floor  and  had  an  equal  vote 
also  in  settling  them.  I  scarcely  know  how  we  escaped 
organic  vniion  at  that  time,  we  came  so  very  near  it. 
Nor  can  we  forget  that  in  the  early  years  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  when  our  hearts  were  so  burdened  about 
those  new  settlements  of  the  West,  your  missionaries  and 


CENTENNIAL  OF  HOME  MISSIONS  219 

ours  went  out  with  clasped  luuids  bearing  commissions 
from  the  same  old  Amcjrican  Home  Missionary  Society, 
supported  by  the  same  treasury,  and  that  treasury  filled 
by  your  gifts  and  by  ours  combined.  That  lasted  thirty- 
five  years,  that  union.  It  would  be  lasting  to-day  but 
for  the  hope  which  has  been  well  assured  and  sustained 
that  by  division  we  could  accomplish  yet  larger  con- 
quests for  the  common  Lord.  But  that  was  the  history 
of  our  home  missionary  work  for  thirty-five  years.  Nor 
least  of  all  can  we,  brother  Congregationalists,  forget 
that  famous  "  plan  of  union,"  that  historic  plan  of  union, 
that  bound  our  churches  on  the  frontier  together  for 
more  than  fifty  years.  Never  was  a  fairer  compact  than 
that.  Never  were  contracting  parties  more  liberal,  more 
honest,  more  sincere,  more  just  in  their  intentions  than 
they,  and  if  the  result  has  been  somewhat  less  fortunate 
for  us  than  for  you,  we  have  only  to  remember  that  it 
was  not  you  who  proposed  it,  but  we.  It  came  from 
Connecticut  to  you,  and  not  from  you  to  us.  Brethren, 
we  do  not  regret  the  plan  of  union.  Do  not  for  a 
moment  think  it.  The  more  you  look  at  it  the  more  it 
shines  as  the  most  splendid  object  lesson  of  Christian 
comity  which  the  last  century  witnessed,  from  end  to 
end.  We  do  not  regret  either  the  vantage  which  came 
to  you  from  it, — not  in  the  least, — when  we  see  that  by 
just  so  much  more  the  Puritan  faith  and  the  Puritan 
spirit,  which  are  above  all  denominational  advantage, 
have  been  disseminated  throughout  the  land.  And  if  we 
are  somewhat  poorer  by  the  arrangement, — poorer,  we 
are  told,  by  several  hundred  churches, — well,  we  comfort 


220  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

ourselves  with  the  thouglit  that  it  is  an  honorable 
poverty  which,  like  that  of  the  apostle,  has  made  many 
rich. 

Brethren,  what  shall  we  say  now  of  the  present  and 
the  future  ?  One  word  only  :  Let  brotherly  love  con- 
tinue. Thank  God  we  must  not,  we  need  not  say.  Let 
there  be  brotherly  love,  or,  Let  brotherly  love  be  re- 
stored ;  but,  Let  brotherly  love  continue,  as  it  was  in  the 
beginning,  is  now,  and  ever  shall  be,  yes,  world  without 
end. 

Brethren,  there  is  a  great  deal  more  Christian  comity 
in  our  missionary  work  than  some  critics  would  have  us 
believe,  especially  that  critic  who  gets  his  judgment  from 
a  car  window  flying  through  a  town  at  the  rate  of 
sixty  miles  an  hour.  He  sees  so  many  steeples, — he 
counts  everything  that  looks  like  a  spire, — like  a  man  I 
heard  of,  who  even  counted  the  ambitious  dome  of  a 
hennery  for  a  spire.  Everything  counts  for  a  spire  in 
the  eyes  of  that  man,  and  he  rushes  into  print  with  a 
harrowing  tale  of  the  awful  wickedness  and  the  awful 
multiplicity  of  churches,  and  the  awful  waste  of  men 
and  money  on  the  frontier.  Well,  brethren,  whatever 
truth  there  may  be  in  it,  it  does  not  hold  between  Pres- 
byterians and  Congregationalists,  because  we  have  our 
practical  way  of  settling  all  those  difficulties.  We  have 
our  compact,  and  it  is  a  working  compact.  It  works. 
About  the  only  question  we  have  to  consider,  the  most 
delicate  and  difficult  one — about  some  church  that  is  sup- 
posed to  be  dead,  when  other  people  think  it  isn't.  But 
I  have  this  to  say  with  regard  to  that,  brethren  :  If  you 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  221 

ever  discover  a  dead  Congregational  church  on  mis- 
sionary ground,  we  will  join  with  you  in  holding  a 
mutual  inquest  over  the  remains.  And  you  cannot  do 
us  a  greater  favor  if  that  church  is  holding  the  ground 
in  any  other  way  than  as  a  corpse  should,  you  cannot  do 
us  a  greater  favor  than  by  planting  a  live  Presbyterian 
Church  right  over  its  grave.  And  we  will  do  the  same 
for  you.  For  Congregationalists,  whatever  their  al- 
leged heresies,  brethren,  do  not  believe  in  the  continued 
probation  of  a  church  after  death.  Then  let  brotherly 
love  continue.  That  is  about  all  the  message  I  have. 
We  were  told  by  one  of  our  pulpit  orators  the  other 
day  that  never  since  the  church  began  on  earth  have 
denominational  lines  been  more  distinctly  drawn  than 
to-day.  That  may  be  true.  But  it  is  only  half  true. 
Never  since  the  day  of  Pentecost  has  there  been  so  much 
real  union  between  denominations  as  there  is  to-day. 
Never  such  mutual  charity  between  them ;  never  such 
respect  for  things  in  which  we  differ,  and  never,  never, 
I  am  sure,  such  loving  accord  in  all  evangelistic  and 
missionary  work.  I  say  then,  let  brotherly  love  con- 
tinue. Your  beloved  and  honored  and  noble  secretary 
came  to  Boston  last  season  and  gave  us  a  most  cordial 
right  hand  of  your  fellowship.  It  was  lovely.  I  wish 
you  all  could  have  heard  him.  You  know  how  it  must 
have  been  for  you  know  him.  Now  it  is  my  great 
pleasure  to  stand  here  to-day  and  to  respond  to  that 
loving  greeting,  and  to  offer  to  you  the  right  hand  of  our 
fellowship.  In  the  name  of  the  Congregational  Home 
Missionary  Society,  in  the  name  of  the  Congregational 


222  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

churches  that  stand  behind  it,  I  give  you  a  loving  God- 
speed for  the  new  century.  Let  there  be  only  one  con- 
tention between  us,  which  shall  redeem  the  larger  por- 
tion of  this  fair  land  to  King  Emanuel ;  and  I  pray 
God,  brethren,  that  when  Ave  shout  together  the  harvest 
home,  your  share  in  the  glorious  result  will  be  both 
abundant  and  rewarding. 


MISSIONARY  SOCIETY  OF  THE  METHODIST 
EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

BY 

BISHOP  E.  G.  ANDREWS,  D.  D. 

New  York,  N.  Y. 


3Ir.  Moderator : — 

I  ALSO  am  commissioned  to  bring  greetings,  congratu- 
lations, and  God-speed,  and  this  from  the  Missionary 
Society  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  And  now, 
Mr.  Moderator,  what  more  shall  I  say  ?  Have  not  the 
topics  which  have  thus  been  enumerated  been  thor- 
oughly exhausted  ?  Yet  words  of  affection  may  be  often 
repeated  without  weariness.  Let  me  then  give  you  the 
greetings  of  this  sister  church  and  its  missionary  society 
as  brethren  to  you  beloved  in  the  household  of  faith  ;  as 
coworkers  with  you  in  the  kingdom  and  patience  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  as  heirs  with  you  of  the  great 
salvation.  Blessed  be  God  for  his  infinite  compassions 
to  us.  I  congratulate  you  upon  the  century  of  your 
history,  the  opportune  moment  of  your  organization,  the 
decades  that  have  followed  of  faithful  work  under  most 
skillful  leadership,  the  large  increase  of  churches  under 
your  care,  the  multitudes  who,  saved  and  led  to  Christ 
by  your  ministrations,  have  already  crossed  the  flood, 

223 


224  CENTENNIAL  OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

and  tlie  still  larger  number,  perhaps,  that  remain,  work- 
ing in  the  churches  which  you  have  founded  ;  upon  the 
colleges  and  schools  which  you  have  established,  u])on 
the  broad  liberalities  which  you  have  inculcated,  and 
upon  the  patriotic  service  which  you,  in  common  with 
a  multitude  of  your  fellow-men,  have  been  able  to 
render.  I  bid  you  God-speed ;  for,  brethren,  the  work 
that  lies  before  us  in  the  coming  century  is  incomparably 
greater,  I  think,  and  even  more  difficult  than  that 
which  has  already  been  accomplished.  We  have  had 
a  marvelous  grow'th  of  population  ;  but  what  shall  be 
the  population  of  this  fair  land  when  the  year  2000 
shall  have  been  rung?  I  think,  at  a  very  moderate 
calculation,  it  must  be  at  least  four  hundred  millions  of 
people,  covering  all  the  plains,  crowding  all  the  cities, 
accumulating  forces  for  good  or  for  evil  beyond  our 
power  of  estimate.  And  these  are  the  generations  that 
we  are  to  meet.  They  are  to  be  composite  in  character. 
How  admirably  one  of  our  brethren  this  afternoon  set 
that  forth,  together  with  the  hopefulness  of  the  condi- 
tions thus  arising  ! 

But  then,  further,  these  great  social  and  economic 
questions  that  are  vexing  us  to  the  core  in  these  days, 
these  solicitudes  that  press  upon  so  many  humane  and 
Christian  and  patriotic  hearts,  of  the  relation  of  class 
to  class,  of  labor  to  capital,  and  beyond  that,  then  that 
new  spirit  of  independence  in  thought,  of  inquiry,  of 
unwillingness  to  receive  from  the  fathers  aught  of  their 
affirmed  knowledge ;  that  spirit  leading  to  such  wide- 
spread doubt  and  criticism,  in  so  many  cases  touching 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  225 

the  very  fundamentals  of  our  faith, — these  are  the  things 
that  it  seems  make  the  future  that  lies  before  us  one  of 
very  great  anxiety  to  every  thoughtful  man ;  and  he 
who  understands  aught  of  this  problem  thus  to  be 
solved  must  turn  to  this  society,  with  other  kindred 
societies,  and  from  the  profound  depths  of  his  heart 
wish  it  God-speed.  May  your  agencies  be  abundantly 
multiplied.  May  your  treasury  be  overflowing.  May 
your  leadership  be  more  skillful  than  any  that  you  have 
known  even  in  your  palmiest  days,  and  so  may  you 
contribute  to  that  great  work  which  the  Lord  of  the 
vineyard  has  laid  upon  us  all. 

I  have  rejoiced  in  these  days  at  what  I  have  been 
privileged  to  see  and  hear  of  your  work.  I  was  present 
during  a  greater  part  of  yesterday  afternoon  and  heard 
the  presentations  then  made  so  wisely  and  so  eloquently 
touching  your  work,  as  you  crossed  the  Alleghenies, 
and  prospected  through  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and 
climbed  the  Rockies,  and  poured  yourself  upon  the 
Pacific  Slope.  I  thanked  God  for  it.  But  I  thank 
God  that  you  did  not  stand  alone  in  that  work.  I  may 
rehearse  for  a  moment  the  work  of  our  own  church 
possibly  without  offending  you.  We  did  not  begin  our 
formal  and  organized  work  so  early  as  did  yourselves. 
Indeed,  we  did  not  begin  our  church  life  so  early.  It 
was  in  the  year  1766  that  Mr.  Wesley's  first  two 
missionaries  landed  at  Gloucester  City,  opposite  Phila- 
delphia, and  began  their  ministration,  so  that  we  have 
only  a  church  life  of  about  half  the  length  of  your  own 
life  in  this  country,  perhaps  not  half  the  length  of  that 

15 


226  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

life;  I  tliink  not.  And  we  were  poor  as  well  as  feeble, 
too ;  but  from  the  beginning  I  think  the  missionary 
spirit  was  in  us  unorganized,  as  I  am  glad  to  learn  from 
your  various  documents  and  statements  it  was  in  your 
Presbyterian  Church.  And  Mr.  Asbury,  our  first  great 
leader  in  America,  before  there  was  any  mission- 
ary society  organized,  began  to  collect  in  the  eastern 
regions  funds  with  which  he  crossed  toward  the  AUe- 
ghenies,  and  crossed  the  Alleghenies,  supplying,  out  of 
the  scanty  resources  thus  gathered,  the  needs  of  the 
laboring  men  who  had  borne  themselves,  carried  them- 
selves, sometimes  with  their  families,  into  that  western 
world.  Sixty  times  did  Mr.  Asbury  cross  the  Alle- 
ghenies before  the  year  1816  (when  his  course  termi- 
nated), mostly  on  horseback,  carrying  the  gospel  into 
those  regions  to  his  brethren  gone  before  him,  so  that 
they  as  well  as  yourselves  occupied  that  region,  and  the 
Tennessee  and  Kentucky  region,  and  then  the  Ohio 
region  ;  and  so  we  went  on  doing  this  work,  which  at 
length,  with  the  work  done  by  your  society,  and  by 
other  brethren  of  other  churches,  has  turned  that  broad 
and  glorious  Mississippi  Valley  into  one  of  the  great 
treasuries  of  the  Lord's  people  and  of  the  Lord's  Church. 
The  upshot  of  it  is  this,  that  to-day  we  have  only  one 
missionary  society  in  our  church,  covering  both  our  for- 
eign and  our  home  work.  But  the  appropriations 
made  for  that  home  work  by  this  society,  added  to  the 
appropriations  realized,  the  moneys  realized  by  the 
Women's  Home  Missionary  Board  of  our  church, 
amount  to  somewhat  over  $800,000  each  year.     We 


CENTENNIAL  OF  HOME  MISSIONS  227 

have  a  vast  constituency.  We  wish  they  were  better 
than  they  are.  We  wish  they  were  more  liberal  than 
they  are.  But  still  we  are  gaining  and  growing  in  this 
matter,  and  we  hope  for  a  long  time,  a  very  long  time, 
to  be  united  with  you  in  the  great  work  of  turning  this 
land  into  Emanuel's  land. 

Pardon  me,  sir,  for  taking  so  much  of  your  time.  I 
rejoice,  brethren,  in  your  successes,  and  pray  God's 
blessing  upon  you  in  all  your  work. 


DOMESTIC  AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  SO- 
CIETY OF  THE  PROTESTANT  EPISCO- 
PAL CHURCH  IN  THE  U.  S.  A. 

BY  THE 

EEV.  D.  H.  GREER,  D.D. 

New  Yoek,  N.  Y. 


Mr.  3Ioderator  and  Christian  Brethren : — 

It  is  a  great  pleasure  to  be  able  to  stand  upon  this 
platform,  although  for  a  moment  I  had  some  little  diffi- 
culty in  getting  here.  One  of  your  courteous  ushers, 
not  recognizing  my  Presbyterian  affinities,  questioned 
for  a  moment  my  right  to  appear  before  you.  But  here 
I  am,  and  here  I  am  glad  to  be,  and  I  esteem  it  a  great 
privilege  and  honor  to  have  been  selected  to  convey  to 
you  the  hearty  good  wishes  and  congratulations,  upon 
this  your  one  hundredth  anniversary,  of  the  Domestic 
and  Foreign  INIissionary  Society  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church.  Your  home  missionary  society  is  older 
than  ours.  We  have  not  yet  reached  and  celebrated  our 
centennial.  And  yet,  notwithstanding  this  difference  in 
our  ages  and  our  comparative  youth,  we  are  trying  in 
our  missionary  enterprise  and  aggressiveness  to  keep  up 

228 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  229 

and  to  catch  up  witli  you,  and  pcrliap.s, — T  do  not  know, 
— have  already  done  so.  Not,  however,  in  the  spirit  of 
ecck'siastical  rivahy,  but  in  that  other  and  ncjbler  spirit 
of  Christian  fellowship  and  charitable  competition  which 
provokes  unto  love  and  unto  good  works.  There  are, 
to  be  sure,  some  differences  between  us,  but  I  have 
heard  rumors  to  the  effect  that  there  are  some  differences 
among  yourselves.  Some  of  you  are  low  church  Pres- 
byterians ;  some  others  are  high  church  ;  some  others 
broad  church,  and  that  there  are  others  again,  like  my 
honored  friend  and  your  distinguished  moderator,  who, 
in  the  beautiful  catholicity  and  comprehensiveness  of  his 
Christian  character,  has  acquired  that  Christian  art, 
tliat  fine  Christian  art,  of  learning  how  to  unite  and  to 
adorn  them  all.  Intimations  may  have  come  to  you 
that  differences  of  the  same  or  of  similar  character  exist 
among  ourselves  in  the  Episcopal  Church  ;  and  yet  we 
can  all  somehow  manage  to  live  and  work  together,  and 
perhaps  to  do,  not  in  spite  of  our  differences,  if  they  are 
not  too  radical  and  vital,  but  because  of  our  differences, 
better  and  more  effectual  Christian  work,  reaching  out 
thereby  and  touching  many  different  lines,  many  different 
persons,  and  many  different  types  of  temperament,  and 
character,  and  thought;  establishing  here  and  there 
different  points  of  view,  not  one  of  which  alone,  but  all 
of  which  together,  shall  constitute  the  circle  points,  the 
ever-widening  circle  points,  surrounding  Jesus  Christ, 
the  life  of  that  great,  strong  Son  of  God  which  no  human 
term  can  compass  and  define.  Thus  will  Christendom 
become  like  a  great  prism,  reflecting  Jesus  Christ  in 


230  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

beautiful  color  lights,  aud  bringing  out  more  completely 
the  fullness  of  him  who  filleth  all  in  all. 

Yet  while  differences  exist,  unity  must  exist  too. 
And  where  and  how  is  that  unity  to  be  found?  Gentle- 
men, in  my  judgment,  not  through  our  General  Con- 
ventions, or  your  General  Assemblies,  but  in  the  mis- 
sionary field  where  the  representatives  of  our  various 
missionary  societies, — the  pioneer  w^ork  on  the  frontier 
line,  like  soldiers  of  different  regiments  or  of  different 
army  divisions,  yet  with  the  same  battle  flag  and  under 
the  same  banner, — are  confronting  the  same  hostile  forces, 
and  by  their  common  aim  and  effort  shall  react  upon 
Christendom  at  large,  and  give  its  true  unity  to  it.  Not 
only  shall  we  contribute  thus  to  the  unity  of  the  Church, 
but  to  the  unity  of  the  State,  giving  to  it  that  permanent 
support  which  it  can  only  have  in  the  everlasting  prin- 
ciples of  the  righteousness  of  Jesus  Christ.  That  is 
your  conviction,  my  brethren,  and  that  is  our  conviction, 
and  what  we  are  both  trying  to  do  is  to  give  to  the 
State  that  permanent  support.  We  are  trying  this  year 
to  raise  $1,000,000  for  our  steady  general  missionary 
work,  in  addition  to  specific  and  special  contributions 
for  the  foreign  and  domestic  fields.  If  you  sliall  try  to 
reach  twice  that  sum,  or  three  times  or  ten  times,  God 
bless  you  in  your  effort  and  give  it  abundant  success. 
For  the  field  is  big  and  broad,  and  there  is  room  enough 
for  all.  Only  let  us  remember  that  it  is  our  common 
task  to  introduce  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ  into  our 
American  life,  to  put  his  spirit  into  the  wheels  of  our 
industrial  developments,  and  to  stamp  his  image  on  the 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  231 

coins  of  our  physical  and  plutocratic  enlargements,  and, 
brethren,  touched  and  anointed  with  that  Pentecostal 
spirit  which  gave  birth  to  the  Christian  Church,  that  is 
what  we  shall  do. 

The  traveler  who  visits  the  city  of  Rome  to-day  finds 
among  the  ruins  of  that  once  famed  metropolis  a  column 
of  marble  erected  by  the  Roman  Senate  and  people  to 
the  memory  of  the  Emperor  Trajan,  with  the  words 
placed  there  two  thousand  years  ago,  and  the  bas  reliefs 
setting  forth  in  due  course  his  achievements,  and  there 
stands  on  the  top  of  that  shaft,  not  the  statue  of  the 
emperor,  but  of  the  great  champion  and  apostle  of  Jesus 
Christ,  as  if  all  the  figures  were  intended  to  lead  up  to 
Jesus  Christ.  And  what  M^e  are  trying  to  do  in  our 
missionary  efforts  is  to  make  Jesus  Christ  as  a  practical 
force  come  into  our  American  civilization,  with  the  loco- 
motive, and  the  railroad,  and  the  mine,  and  the  shop, 
and  the  factory,  and  the  telegraph,  and  the  printing  press, 
and  to  crown  him  Lord  of  all. 


BOARD   OF   DOMESTIC   MISSIONS  OF  THE 
REFORMED  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA 

BY  THE 

REV.  JAMES  1.  VANCE,  D.  D. 
Newark,  N.  J. 


Jfr.  3Ioderator,  Fathers,  and  Brethren : — 

From  a  Church  whose  numbers  are  small,  but  whose 
sympathies  are  large,  and  whose  annals  are  honorable, 
and  whose  spirit  is  catholic,  and  whose  faith  is  suffi- 
ciently sound,  I  come  into  this  fellowship  meeting  rep- 
resenting 112,000  American  Dutchmen,  many  of  whom, 
like  myself,  are  of  plain  Scotch  or,  plainer,  Scotch-Irish 
birth,  but  all  of  whom  are  loyal  to  the  cross  and  to  the 
flag.  Representing  such  a  constituency,  I  bring  the 
warmest  fraternal  greetings  to  all  those  who  are  con- 
cerned with  making  and  keeping  America  a  Christian 
nation.  I  bring  the  hearty  congratulations  of  my  church 
to  the  Home  Missionary  Board  of  the  Presbyterian 
Churcli  in  the  United  States  of  America  for  the  peerless 
contribution  it  has  made  to  this  supreme  enterprise. 
The  Reformed  Church  in  America,  or,  as  it  is  more 
affectionately  known,  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church,  is, 
with  a  single  exception,  the  oldest  Protestant  organiza- 
tion in  America,  and  was  the  first  such  church  to  set 
2:^2 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  233 

foot  on  American  soil.  The  question  is  sometimes  asked 
why,  with  such  a  starter,  we  have  not  gotten  more  ter- 
ritory under  our  feet.  A  Dutchman  has  never  required 
much  territory  for  his  feet.  HoUand  is  a  little  land,  a 
little,  little  laud  of  sturdy  dykes  and  busy  towns,  and 
industrious  honest  people,  but  Holland  has  fought  the 
battles  of  the  world  for  civil  and  religious  liberty.  The 
Reformed  Church  in  America  has  done  more  for  other 
churches  than  it  has  for  itself,  and  that  is  the  reason 
why  our  numbers  are  not  as  large  as  our  sympathies. 
We  believe  in  helping  out  our  sister  churches  in  distress. 
The  distinguished  moderator  of  this  assembly  is  not  a 
member  of  our  immediate  communion,  to  be  sure,  but 
"  van  Dyke  "  is  a  most  savory  Dutch  name,  and  a  few 
centuries  ago  we  gave  you  your  present  moderator. 

On  this  occasion  also  we  are  giving  a  principal  speaker 
for  the  Home  Mission  Centennial  Anniversary,  and  we 
are  very  glad  to  lend — yes,  we  are  very  glad  to  lend — 
our  Presbyterian  friends  that  valiant  and  strenuous  son 
of  the  Reformetl  Church,  Theodore  Roosevelt,  for  we  are 
quite  sure  that  he  will  have  the  meeting  w^ell  in  hand. 
I  think  you  will  agree  with  me  that  it  is  not  very  often 
a  church  manifests  the  spirit  of  ecclesiastical  comity  by 
lending  a  sister  denomination  in  distress  a  President 
of  the  United  States  in  order  that  her  cup  of  joy  may 
be  full.  But  that  is  only  an  incident  with  us  in  our 
lavish  and  generous  treatment  of  our  larger  but  less  for- 
tunate and  more  solicitous  sisters.  We  do  not  give  the 
nation  a  President  very  often;  but  when  we  do,  we  give 
a  good  one.     We  make  up  in  quality  what  we  lack  in 


234  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  ilTSSIONS 

quantity.  Wc  give  a  four-square  American  citizen 
wlioin  all  the  nation  respects — North,  South,  East, 
West — a  President  who  was  a  man  before  ever  he  was  a 
President,  and  who  is  a  vigorous,  positive  Christian  man 
all  the  time  he  is  President.  It  is  sometimes  intimated 
that  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church  has  more  pride  of 
ancestry  than  hope  of  posterity,  but  that  is  only  one 
of  the  mistakes  of  the  higher  critics.  We  have  the 
ancestry,  to  be  sure,  and  we  are  very  proud  of  our  pres- 
ent pedigree,  but  our  face  is  toward  the  morning,  and, 
in  comparison  with  our  numbers,  the  Reformed  Church 
is  conducting  a  missionary  work  at  home  and  abroad 
which  is  unexcelled,  and  whose  praise  is  in  all  the 
churches. 

So  I  believe  that  we  have  a  right  to  a  place  on  this 
platform.  From  a  church  whose  heart  beats  loyal  to 
the  cause  of  home  missions,  I  come  to  place  one  sprig 
of  orange  in  the  Presbyterian  bouquet.  Or,  if  you 
please,  to  weave  one  thread  of  old  gold  in  the  blue  ban- 
ner we  all  love  so  well.  If  there  be  one  cause  in  wliose 
radiant  presence  the  shadows  of  denominational  differ- 
ence should  lift  and  vanish,  it  is  that  cause  which 
speaks  from  this  pulpit  to-day,  and  Avhose  lustrous  and 
inspiring  goal  is  America  for  Christ.  Plere  the  things 
which  divide  us  are  lost  sight  of,  and  the  things  which 
unite  us  are  foremost.  The  things  which  unite  us  are 
not  the  propagation  of  a  dogma  or  the  glorification  of  a 
saint.  The  sectarian  is  a  religious  provincial.  He 
makes  the  mistake  of  imagining  that  one  is  a  better  or 
worse   Christian  according  to  his  brand,  and  that  the 


CENTENMAL   OF  HOME  MISSION'S  235 

cause  of  Christ  locates  itself  chiefly  in  his  own  denomi- 
national degrees  of  latitude  and  longitude.  But  the 
cause  of  home  missions  bursts  such  narrow  boundaries, 
and  has  for  its  goal  the  Christianization  of  America. 
Its  effort  is  to  plant  the  cross,  and  all  for  which  the 
cross  stands,  in  the  remotest  mountain  fastnesses  ;  to 
plant  the  light  of  the  gospel  in  the  darkest  slums ;  to 
send  small  companies  of  militant  Christians  to  man  the 
outposts,  to  preach  the  gospel  of  the  Son  of  God  so  lov- 
ingly, so  convincingly,  so  thoroughly  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  this  United  States  that  America 
shall  become  a  delightsome  land  to  her  own  and  a  bless- 
ing to  all  mankind.  The  destiny  of  the  race  is  in  our 
keeping  as  never  before.'  It  is  no  bit  of  Yankee  bluster 
which  says,  "  As  goes  America,  so  goes  the  world." 
How  shall  man  regard  his  fellow  ?  How'  and  when  is 
war  to  be  waged?  How  are  weaker  peoples  to  be 
treated  ?  How  is  commerce  to  be  conducted  ?  AVhat 
of  labor  as  well  as  what  of  trade  ?  How  are  gigantic 
wrongs  to  be  righted  ?  America's  attitude  on  all  these 
questions  is  of  supreme  importance,  and  the  American 
citizen  to-day  is  vested  not  only  with  municipal  and 
State  and  national,  but  with  racial  suffrage.  The  move- 
ment is  a  world  campaign.  It  is  something  for  the 
human  race  that  America  be  Christian.  If  America  is 
to  be  great,  she  must  be  Christian.  And  if  she  would 
be  Christian  abroad,  she  must  not  be  pagan  at  home. 
And  whoever  lifts  America  closer  to  the  heart  of  Christ 
is,  with  the  same  gracious  heft,  lifting  China  and  India 
and  Africa  and  the  islands  of  the  sea  nearer  to  God. 


236  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

He  is  pressing  the  crusade  of  a  world  emancipation.  If 
there  be  one  man  more  than  any  other  to-day  whose 
heart  should  be  fired  with  a  mighty  enthusiasm,  it  is  he 
who  flies  the  banner  of  the  cross  and  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  from  the  same  flagstaif,  and  whose  battle  cry  is, 
"  America  for  Christ." 

Some  months  ago,  off  the  coast  of  Malaga,  a  German 
training-ship  went  down  with  the  loss  of  over  100  lives. 
The  people  on  the  land  could  see  the  wreck,  but  they 
could  do  nothing  to  relieve  its  distress.  They  saw  Avaves 
of  mountainous  height  sweep  over  the  deck.  Some  of 
the  cadets  were  swept  overboard.  Many  climbed  into 
the  rigging.  The  people  from  the  land  saw  those  Ger- 
man lads  in  the  rigging  wave  their  caps,  and  then,  above 
the  shriek  of  the  storm,  they  heard  cheer  after  cheer 
come  from  the  German  cadets  on  the  sinking  ship. 
Those  boys  were  drowning,  but  with  their  dying  breath 
they  were  cheering  the  Kaiser  and  the  Fatherland.  It 
seems  to  me  it  is  some  such  mighty  enthusiasm  as  that 
which  should  stir  the  heart  of  the  Church  as  we  confront 
this  cause  of  home  missions.  To  be  the  citizen  of  such 
a  country  as  this,  to  live  in  such  a  time  as  this,  to  stand 
in  the  morning  hour  of  this  matchless  century,  in  the 
center  of  its  marvelous  triumphs,  in  the  thick  of  its 
splendid  opportunities,  with  America  for  a  pulpit  and 
the  world  for  an  audience,  and  to  speak  the  message  and 
to  share  in  doing  the  work  which  is  to  make  and  keep 
America  a  Christian  nation,  and  God's  servant  to  all 
peoples,  is  to  confront  a  chance  besides  which  that  of 
Adam  dwarfs  and  that  of  INIoses  pales.     It  is  enough  to 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  237 

stir  the  pulses  in  the   veins  of  death,  and  tongue  the 
dumb  with  eloquence. 

Mr.  Moderator,  the  church  which  I  have  the  honor 
to  represent  thanks  God  that  America  has  had,  and  still 
has,  a  Presbyterian  Church,  and  that  the  Presbyterian 
Church  has  been  and  still  is  a  home  missionary  church, 
whose  courageous  consecrated  sons  and  devoted  daughters 
have  not  hesitated  to  go  to  the  hottest  mark  of  the  fir- 
ing line  on  the  far  frontier,  flying  the  flag,  and  living 
and  preaching  the  cross,  that  America  may  be  Christ's. 


ALLIANCE  OF  REFORMED  CHURCHES 

BY  THE 

EEV.  WM.  H.  EGBERTS,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

Philadelphia,  Pa. 

(American  Secretary.) 


Officers  of  the  Home  Board,  Fathers,  and  Brethren: — 
It  was  expected  that  Dr.  AVilliam  Caven,  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  Canada,  the  President  of  the  Alli- 
ance of  Reformed  Churches  throughout  the  world  hold- 
ing the  Presbyterian  system,  would  offer  to  the  Presby- 
terian Board  of  Home  Missions  of  this  church  the 
congratulations  of  the  Alliance  upon  this  auspicious 
occasion.  Dr.  Caven,  however,  is  unavoidably  absent, 
and  the  pleasant  duty  falls  to  my  lot  to  speak  a  few 
words  in  connection  with  the  work  of  home  missions  as 
it  is  viewed,  not  simply  by  one  denomination,  but  by  all 
the  denominations  throughout  the  world  who  hold  the 
Calvinistic  theology  and  the  Presbyterian  government. 
Let  me  emphasize,  as  I  perform  this  duty,  the  fact  that 
as  a  denomination  this  church  of  ours  belongs  to  a  great 
Christian  communion  ;  tliat  there  is  but  one  other  com- 
munion bearing  the  name  of  Christian  which  is  as  wide- 
spread and  takes  in  as  many  families  of  the  human 

238 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  239 

race.  There  are  geographically  but  two  ecumenical  or 
universal  Christian  Churches,  the  Roman  Catholic  and 
the  Reformed  or  Presbyterian.  The  Reformed  and 
Presbyterian  Churches  are  found  in  every  land,  worship 
God  in  all  civilized  tongues,  and  stand  amid  all  nations 
to  emphasize  the  brotherhood  of  man,  the  fatherhood  of 
God,  and  the  hopes  which  center  in  the  pure  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ.  As  I  speak  on  the  subject  of  home  mis- 
sions, it  is  proper  that  I  should  emphasize  yet  another 
fact,  that  these  Reformed  Churches,  found  in  all  civilized 
countries,  have,  throughout  their  history,  emphasized  in 
a  peculiar  manner  the  word  of  God  as  the  supreme  rule 
of  faith  and  conduct,  and  the  teaching  and  the  preaching 
of  that  word,  under  the  blessing  of  the  Spirit  of  God, 
as  the  one  great  instrument  for  the  conversion  of  souls 
and  for  the  advancement  of  the  welfare  of  mankind. 
We  are  not  sacramentarian  churches,  but  are  the  churches 
of  the  gospel,  seeking  in  every  way  possible  to  render 
obedience  to  the  command  of  Christ,  to  preach  his  gos- 
pel to  all  nations.  It  is  eminently  proper,  therefore, 
that  on  this  occasion  the  "  Alliance  of  the  Reformed 
Ciiurches  throughout  the  world  "  should  tender  to  the 
Board  of  Home  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
of  the  United  States  of  America,  to  which  that  Church 
has  entrusted  the  missionary  teaching  and  preaching  of 
the  gospel  in  this  great  land,  congratulations  upon  the 
Board's  one  hundredth  anniversary. 

There  has  been  much  reference  here  made  to  the  work 
of  this  Home  Mission  Board,  and  the  opportunity  given 
for  the  work  of  that  Board  in  this  country.     With  the 


240  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

eloquent  utterances  of  the  last  speaker  wc  all  can  most 
heartily  concur,  and  unite  with  him  in  prayer  to  God, 
for  yet  further  blessing  upon  the  interests  of  the  Church 
in  connection  with  home  missions,  as  they  have  relation 
to  the  future  of  America.  It  is  well  for  the  Board  of 
Home  Missions  to  be  guided  in  all  its  work  by  the  fact 
that  in  this  land,  above  every  other  land,  God  is  making 
possible  strict  and  literal  obedience  to  the  command  of 
Christ,  "Go  preach  my  gospel  to  all  nations."  The 
nations  are  being  gathered,  by  the  providence  of  God, 
in  this  city  of  New  York,  in  the  city  of  Chicago,  in  the 
other  great  centers  of  population,  and  also  throughout 
the  rural  districts.  Where  is  the  city  in  the  United 
States  in  which  you  will  not  find  men  of  well  nigh 
every  color,  every  race,  and  every  speech  ?  The  peoples 
who  separated  in  the  long  past  at  the  tower  of  Babel 
are  assembling  once  more  within  these  lands  west  of  the 
Atlantic.  God  has  opened  to  the  Board  of  Home  Mis- 
sions of  this  church,  and  of  every  American  Protestant 
church,  a  vast  field  for  abounding  labor. 

The  Alliance  of  the  Reformed  Churches  has  an  Ameri- 
can section,  and  that  section  holds  stated  semi-annual 
meetings.  There  was  a  special  report  upon  the  work  of 
home  missions  made  at  the  meeting  held  in  Pittsburg  on 
the  16th  and  17th  days  of  April,  in  the  present  year. 
That  report  showed  that  the  work  of  home  missions  was 
being  carried  on  by  every  one  of  the  churches  connected 
with  the  Alliance:  The  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church, 
the  Presbyterian  Church  South,  the  United  Presbyterian 
Church,  the  Synod  and  the  General  Synod  of  the  Re- 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  241 

formed  Presbyterian  Church,  the  Associate  Synod  of  the 
South,  the  Reformed  (German)  Church  in  the  United 
States  (the  church  with  which  President  Roosevelt  wor- 
ships), the  Reformed  (Dutch)  Church  in  America,  the 
Welsh  Presbyterian  Church,  and  last,  but  not  least,  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  Canada.  These  ten  churches, 
representing  together  1,150,000  communicants  and 
4,000,000  adherents,  stand  with  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  the  U.  S.  A.,  and  its  1,000,000  communicants  and 
3,500,000  adherents,  for  Christ  and  a  pure  gospel  on 
this   continent. 

One  remark  made  by  a  representative  of  the  Cana- 
dian Church  at  Pittsburg  will  bear  repeating.  There 
is  in  it  that  which  should  occasion  sorrow  to  every 
true  American  heart.  The  Canadian  Church  has  an 
immense  home  mission  work,  as  this  Church  has,  and 
the  testimony  of  the  Canadian  clergyman,  speaking  for 
his  church,  was  this,  that  the  element  most  difficult 
in  Canada,  in  particular  in  the  northwest  provinces,  to 
influence  for  religion,  and  the  element  most  indifferent 
to  religion,  was  the  element  that  had  come  into  Canada 
from  the  United  States.  We  have  in  this  nation,  to  our 
sorrow,  an  immense  number  of  perscms,  in  particular, 
men,  who  are  not  connected  w'ith  any  church  of  Jesus 
Christ,  Protestant  or  Roman  Catholic,  and  w^hose  atti- 
tude toward  religion  is  one  of  absolute  indifference. 
Some  years  back  the  Home  Mission  Board  published  a 
pamphlet,  wdiich  they  gave  me  the  privilege  of  writing, 
the  gist  of  which  was  this,  that  two  out  of  every  three 
of  the  adult  males  in  this  land  were  not  connected  with 

16 


242  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

any  Christian  church.  And  this  sad  state  of  affairs  was 
most  evident  west  of  the  Missouri.  Is  there  need  for 
home  missions  ?  Yes  !  abounding  need  !  and  these  sister 
churches  come  here  to-day  and  tender  througli  me,  as  the 
American  Secretary  of  the  AUiancc,  to  the  Board  of 
Home  Missions  of  the  greatest  of  the  Presbyterian 
Churches  of  the  world,  this  above  all  other  messages : 
Brethren,  a  great  field  is  open  to  you,  a  field  which  is 
increasingly  great  in  the  providence  of  God.  America 
is  but  another  name  for  ^'  gospel  opportunity."  See  to 
it  that  in  the  century  now  opening,  and  through  each 
year  of  that  century,  your  Plome  ISIission  Board,  as  in 
all  the  past,  shall  be  at  the  front,  shall  lead  onward  the 
hosts  of  God,  until  at  last  this  land  shall  be  made,  from 
ocean  to  ocean,  and  from  North  to  South,  in  truth 
Emanuel's  land. 


EESPONSE  BY  THE  MODERATOR 

THE 
EEV.  HENRY  VAN  DYKE,  D.  D.,  LL.D. 

Princeton,  N.  J. 


Fathers  and  Brethren  : — 

It  falls  to  my  lot  to  reply  to  the  addresses  which  have 
been  made  this  afternoon  and  which  have  rendered  this 
Fellowship  Meeting  most  memorable.  I  wish  that  I 
could  borrow  from  some  of  those  who  have  spoken  here 
their  eloquence  that  I  might  make  my  reply  more  fit- 
ting. One  quality  it  shall  have,  the  quality  of  brevity. 
I  can  say,  with  an  old  friend  of  mine  in  Brooklyn,  I 
have  done  a  great  many  things  that  were  foolish,  and 
some  things  that  were  wrong,  but  I  never  did  anything 
long. 

It  was  a  great  pleasure  to  all  of  ns  as  members  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  to  listen  to  these  felicitations  which 
have  been  offered  to  our  Board  of  Home  Missions.  We 
have  been  glad  to  receive  the  greetings  of  the  other 
boards  of  the  Church.  It  is  a  pleasant  thing  to  know 
that  all  the  boards  of  our  great  Church,  like  all  the 
birds  in  a  good  nest,  dwell  together  in  peace  and  con- 
cord ;  and  for  the  same  reason  that  the  birds  dwell 
together,  because  if  they  didn't  they  would   fall   out. 

243 


244  CENTENNIAL  OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

Now  to  stay  in,  is  to  do  just  the  one  thing  tliat  a  Pres- 
byterian is  always  resolved  to  do,  and  all  our  boards 
mean  to  stay  in,  and  all  to  work  together  in  harmony 
and  fellowship,  and  we  recognize  more  and  more,  the 
more  we  tliink  about  the  work  of  our  Church,  that  all 
these  boards  are  bound  together,  and  that  the  work  of 
one  board  depends  upon  the  success  of  the  work  of  the 
other  boards,  and  that  they  all  cooperate,  and  that  the 
Church  is  in  a  healthy  condition  when  the  same  love 
and  care  and  generosity  is  exercised  toward  all  the 
boards. 

Now,  having  thanked  the  other  boards  for  their  cor- 
dial and  friendly  greetings  to  the  Board  of  Home  INIis- 
sions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  it  becomes  my 
pleasant  privilege  to  thank  the  representatives  of  other 
churches,  who  have  come  to  us  and  who  have  spoken 
to  us  on  behalf  of  our  sister  churches.  I  have  to  thank 
Dr.  Phoades,  the  representative  of  the  Baptist  Home 
Missionary  Society,  and  tell  him  that  we  Presbyterians 
hope  and  wish  and  pray  and  believe  that  the  army  of 
the  Lord  is  always  going  to  work  together  with  the 
navy.  I  have  to  thank  Dr.  Clark,  who  represents  the 
Congregational  Home  INIissionary  Society,  the  society  of 
a  Church  which  has  always  been  in  closest  toucli  witli 
our  own  Church,  so  that  sometimes  it  is  difficult  to  dis- 
tinguish which  is  which  in  certain  portions  of  the 
country.  The  Congregational  Church  and  the  Presby- 
terian Church  have  carried  on  a  great  excliange  associa- 
tion, and  many  men  who  are  now  preaching  in  Presby- 
terian   pulpits    began    their    work   in    Congregational 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  245 

pulpits.  I  myself  had  the  pleasure  of  being  ordained 
by  the  presbytery  of  Brooklyn  to  take  eharge  of  the 
United  Congregational  Church  in  Newport,  llhode 
Island,  and  I  found  some  very  good  Presbyterians 
there,  without  whose  help  we  could  not  have  run  the 
church.  It  did  me  a  great  deal  of  good  to  spend  four 
years  there,  and  I  learned  a  great  many  things  among 
those  Rhode  Island  Congregationalists  which  helped  me 
to  work  here  among  New  York  Presbyterians.  And  we 
give  our  assurance  of  continued  aifection  and  Christian 
love  to  the  Congregational  Church. 

We  have  had  with  us  Bishop  Andrews,  who  has 
represented  worthily,  as  he  has  done  for  so  many  years, 
the  great  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  We  owe  a 
great  deal  to  that  Church.  It  has  helped  us  much. 
One  of  the  latest  gifts  that  that  Church  has  given  us 
was  given  no  longer  ago  than  last  Sunday,  when  Ira  D. 
Sankey,  a  good  Methodist,  joined  Dr.  Gregg's  church 
and  became  a  good  Presbyterian.  My  opinion  is  that  a 
good  Methodist  will  always  make  a  good  Presbyterian, 
and  a  good  Presbyterian  will  always  make  a  good  Meth- 
odist, and  that  each  will  help  the  other  in  the  work  of 
the  Lord. 

We  are  glad  to  have  had  with  us  the  Rev.  Dr.  Greer 
of  St.  Bartholomew's  Church.  He  came  to  take  the  place 
of  Bishop  Doane.  We  were  glad  to  welcome  him,  not 
only  as  a  representative  of  the  bishop,  but  because,  in 
our  belief,  a  presbyter  is  as  good  as  a  bishop  any  day. 
We  welcome  him  also  for  his  works'  sake,  for  I  want  to 
tell  you  men  here  who  may  be  strangers  in  New  York 


246  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

that  there  is  no  man  in  this  great  city  to-day  who  is 
doing  a  stronger,  more  earnest,  more  faithful,  more  suc- 
cessful work  for  Jesus  Christ  on  evangelistic  lines,  with 
a  hand  stretched  out  to  everyone  who  needs  it,  than 
Dr.  Greer  in  St.  Bartholomew's  parish. 

We  welcome  also, — and  I  extend  this  welcome  witli 
a  spirit  of  family  feeling, — we  welcome  Dr.  Vance,  from 
the  Reformed  Church.  \ie  are  glad  that  the  Reformed 
Church  has  got  a  man  who  was  trained,  for  some  years, 
in  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Nashville,  Tennes- 
see. And  although  the  Church  whicli  he  represents  has 
dropped  the  "  Dutch  "  out  of  its  name,  I  am  glad  it  has 
not  dropped  the  Dutch  out  of  its  nature.  It  is  ready  to 
fight  and  pray,  and  it  believes  in  working  all  the  time. 
Those  are  Dutch  characteristics. 

We  welcome  also  and  greet  our  friend  who  is  known 
to  all  of  us,  our  own  stated  clerk,  who  speaks  to  us  in 
his  capacity  as  Secretary  of  the  Alliance  of  the  Reformed 
Chnrches.  We  are  glad  to  hear  him  strike  that  strong 
and  deep  and  true  evangelical  note  of  the  Reformation. 
AVe  are  glad  to  have  him  remind  ns  that  our  Presbyte- 
rian Church  does  not  stand  alone,  but  is  a  member  of  a 
great  sisterhood  which  reaches  around  the  world,  which 
has  historic  links,  and  which  bears  in  its  heart  the  treas- 
ure of  the  reformed  fliith  in  its  purity  and  simplicity, 
and  always  will  bear  that  treasure  there  to  the  end  of 
time. 

But  I  do  not  wish  to  close  this  meeting  without  say- 
ing a  single  word  in  regard  to  the  relation  of  home 
missions  to  the  larger  work  of  world  evangelization. 


CENTKNMAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  247 

You  instructed  your  stated  clerk  and  your  moderator 
to  send  a  message  to  Cuba.      This  message  has  been 
scut : 
"  To  T.  Estrada  Pahna, 

"  President  of  the  Republic  of  Cuba, 
"  Havana,  Cuba : 
"  The  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  the  United  States  of  America  sends  congratulations, 
and  prays  for  God's  blessing  upon  the  new  republic." 

We  are  glad  to  have  a  share  and  a  prayer  in  the 
launching  of  that  new  republic  upon  the  great  waters 
of  history,  and  we  pray  that  God  may  preserve  her 
liberty,  may  establish  her  national  character  in  right- 
eousness and  integrity,  and  may  guide  her  safely  on  a 
long  voyage  of  prosperity  and  freedom  and  peace. 

"Home  missions"  does  not  mean  home  missions  for 
home  alone.  It  means  missions  that  begin  at  home  and 
continue  for  all  the  world.  AVe  want  America  for 
Christ  because  we  want  America  to  help  win  the  world 
for  Christ ;  and  as  he  has  given  to  this  country  a  posi- 
tion of  vantage,  so  he  has  given  to  her  the  great  duty 
of  sending  out  his  gospel  unto  the  uttermost  parts  of 
the  earth.  We  as  freemen,  we  as  Americans,  we  as 
Presbyterians,  realize  that  it  is  our  first  duty  to  stand 
up  for  Christ,  the  eternal  and  only  king,  and  to  make 
his  name  known  to  every  creature  under  God's  blue 
heaven. 


Tuesday  Evening,  May  20th 

CARNEGIE  HALL 


"THE   NEW   CENTUKY" 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  CHAIRMAN 

THE 

EEV.  D.  STUART  DODGE,  D.  D. 

New  York,  N.  Y. 

(President  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions.) 


Every  true  American  is  grateful  that  his  country- 
was  founded  by  men  who  feared  God ;  and  during  all 
the  years  since  God-fearing  men  and  women  have  been 
the  chief  strength  and  glory  of  the  nation.  The  Pres- 
byterian Church  can  fairly  claim,  on  this  centennial 
occasion,  that  it  has  furnished  its  full  quota  of  these 
patriots  who  loved  their  God  and  loved  their  country. 

Religion  and  patriotism  cannot  be  divorced.  From 
its  earliest  days  the  Presbyterian  Church  has  been  a 
missionary  church.  Its  first  action  was  to  send  out 
missionaries  to  the  destitute  settlements  and  to  the 
Indians,  and  from  that  day  to  the  present  these  faithful 
men,  with  their  loyalty  to  God  and  country,  with  their 
profound  reverence  for  the  Bible  and  their  passion  for 
education,  have  kept  pace  with  the  mighty  march  of 
emigration  across  the  broad  continent  to  the  shores  of 
the  Pacific  and  far  up  to  the  frozen  regions  of  the  North ; 
and  when  the  heroic  pages  of  American  history  are 

251 


252  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

written  they  will  be  illumined  with  the  brilliant  names 
and  deeds  of  humble  home  missionaries. 

It  is  not  in  my  province  to  tell  this  story.  It  has 
already  been  eloquently  narrated  in  the  three  historical 
addresses  of  yesterday  afternoon,  and  its  great  truths 
were  enforced  and  applied  by  the  earnest  appeals  of 
this  morning.  The  facts  will  be  grandly  summarized 
to-night  by  one  who  knows  them  well.  In  opening  our 
centennial  celebration  this  evening,  I  have  but  one 
thought  to  present,  and  it  is  the  thought  which  has  been 
weighing  upon  your  hearts  and  which  has  been  the  very 
atmospliere  of  the  Assembly  thus  far. 

While  deeply  thankful  for  the  signal  blessings  of  the 
past,  we  all  feel  that  the  new  century  should  be  inaugu- 
rated by  a  distinct  advance  on  the  part  of  our  Church 
along  every  line  'of  effort ;  that  now  and  here  we  are  to 
make  the  high  resolve  that  all  the  resources  and  influ- 
ences of  this  great  organization  shall  anew,  and  in  a  far 
larger  measure,  be  consecrated  to  the  service  of  God ; 
that  we  devoutly  propose  a  comprehensive  and  positive 
forward  movement,  wisely  planned ;  and  then  to  be  car- 
ried out  persistently,  conscientiously,  and  courageously. 

The  time  is  marvelously  ripe  for  it.  Eighty-five 
millions  of  souls  are  under  our  flag.  Every  day  sees  a 
thousand  immigrants  land  on  our  shores.  Some  stay 
to  fill  up  our  already  overcrowded  cities ;  others  press 
on  to  the  wide  basin  of  the  Mississippi  and  to  the  great 
Northwest,  where,  before  long,  the  seat  of  empire  will 
be  lodged.  Soon  there  will  be  no  more  territories  or 
any  frontiers,  but  the  foes  of  society  and  of  nations  will 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  253 

abound  none  the  less, — ignorance,  irreligion,  infidelity, 
intemperance,  immorality,  anarchy,  Mormonism,  and 
the  over-mastering  greed  of  material  things.  What 
agency  can  bring  healing  to  these  diseases  and  weld 
together  these  heterogeneous  masses?  Not  human 
philosophy ;  not  social  science ;  not  the  power  of  gov- 
ernment. 

There  is  but  one  solvent,  only  one  unfailing  source, 
the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  This  is  the  message  our 
missionaries  bear.  They  do  not  go  out  on  any  sectarian 
propaganda.  They  are  not  to  plant  a  Presbyterian 
Church  in  small  places  where  already  four  or  more  exist. 
They  hasten  on  to  regions  destitute  of  religious  privileges. 
The  day  for  denominational  rivalry  has  largely  passed. 
There  is  a  growing  comity  among  ecclesiastical  bodies 
of  different  names,  a  happy  federation  or  cooperation 
of  forces,  which  shall  henceforth  forbid  all  interference 
with  each  other's  work. 

There  is  a  manifest  harmony  in  our  own  Church 
almost  unparalleled ;  and  now,  thank  God,  we  have  the 
prospect  of  a  creed  which  plain  people  can  understand 
and  accept. 

All  the  sessions  of  the  Assembly  have  been  full  of 
interest,  but  none  more  impressive  and  inspiring  than 
the  meetings  connected  with  the  report  of  the  Evan- 
gelistic Committee.  The  duty  of  this  committee  is  to 
cooperate  with  pastors,  churches,  and  presbyteries  in 
promoting  direct  religious  activity  and  fresh  spiritual 
life.  It  has  at  its  head  a  business  man,  whose  name  is 
known  in  all  the  churches,  and  its  plans  and  operations 


254  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

arc  directed  with  businesslike  wisdom  and  thorough- 
ness. Already  this  year  we  are  told  that  10,000  more 
united  with  our  churches  than  in  the  year  previous. 

Nor  must  we  forget  that  our  home  mission  efforts  are 
vigorously  and  enthusiastically  aided  by  the  Auxiliary 
Woman's  Board,  and  that  this  board  exhibits  a  gift  for 
organization  and  executive  work  not  surpassed  by  any 
agency  in  our  church. 

But  it  is  asserted  that  all  this  requires  funds,  large 
funds.     No  one  denies  it. 

If  vast  sums  are  needed  in  gigantic  financial,  indus- 
trial, and  commercial  schemes,  combinations  that  com- 
mand millions  promptly  spring  up.  Why  should  not 
the  Church  of  God  have  its  great  combinations  ?  AVhy 
should  not  sums  be  collected  on  a  scale  commensurate, 
in  some  degree  at  least,  with  the  vastness  and  eternal 
value  of  the  interests  at  stake  ?  The  time  has  come  for 
a  new  and  distinctly  wider  conception  of  our  work  and 
a  larger  and  more  spontaneous  liberality  in  prosecuting 
it.  We  have  had  only  a  meager  and  partial  view  of  our 
duty  and  privilege. 

You  have  stood  upon  the  top  of  a  high  mountain. 
Clouds  and  mists  have  prevented  you  from  seeing  more 
than  the  foothills  and  something  of  the  plains  beyond  ; 
but  the  clouds  have  rolled  away,  the  mist  has  lifted,  and 
your  wondering  eyes  begin  to  take  in  the  immense  sweep 
of  the  landscape,  mountains  and  valleys  and  plains 
stretching  aw^ay  on  every  side  to  the  remotest  horizon. 

We  stand  upon  the  lofty  heights  of  this  centennial 
celebration.     The  clouds  and  mists  of  our  ignorance  and 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  255 

selfishness,  our  feeble  endeavors  and  limited  results,  have 
rolled  away,  and  we  are  beginning  to  look  out  upon  the 
boundless  extent,  the  beauty,  and  the  grandeur  of  our 
opportunities  and  obligations.  We  begin  to  see  the 
richness  of  our  heritage  and  the  measureless  possibilities 
of  the  land  God  has  called  us  to  possess.  It  is  the  time 
for  large  plans  and  large  performance.  The  nations  of 
the  earth  expect  it.  Some  are  in  darkness,  yet  know 
that  we  have  the  light,  and  are  wondering  why  we  do 
not  bring  it  to  them. 

Friendly  lands  across  the  sea  look  with  jealousy  or 
consternation  at  the  SAvift  accumulation  of  stupendous 
forces  in  this  country.  What  would  be  their  feeling  if 
tlioy  could  be  told  we  purpose  to  hold  these  vast  re- 
sources simply  in  trust  for  humanity  ? 

A  keen-eyed  and  perhaps  sneering  world  about  us  is 
waiting  to  see  what  the  Church  will  do  with  the  wealth 
it  possesses  and  the  commission  it  holds ;  and  none 
know  better  than  unbelievers  what  Christians  ought 
to  do. 

Our  sister  denominations  are  asking  themselves 
whether  "  the  great  Presbyterian  Church  "  is  ready  to 
do  its  large  share  and  carry  its  full  burden  in  the  com- 
mon work  of  winning  this  land  for  Christ. 

The  unevangelized  masses  among  us  of  every  section 
and  race  and  tongue  are,  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
waiting  to  see  if  we  are  true  to  our  professions. 

And  doubtless  a  great  cloud  of  witnesses  are  looking 
down  from  the  heavenly  heights  upon  this  chosen  arena 
and  watching,  with  unspeakable  eagerness,  how  this  con- 


256  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

flict  is  being  waged, — while,  beyond  and  above,  is  tlic 
searching  and  yearning  gaze  of  the  King  himself,  to 
whom  belono:  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth. 

Brethren,  Christian  men  and  women,  this  is  a  divine 
call !     What  shall  be  our  answer  ? 

It  is  one  of  the  notable  blessings  granted  to  this 
country  that  we  have  had  a  succession  of  chief  magis- 
trates who  have  been  profoundly  interested  in  these 
national  and  religious  questions,  but  no  one  of  them  has 
been  more  interested  or  more  familiar  with  the  broad 
territory  of  our  operations  than  our  honored  guest  who 
now  holds  this  high  office.  His  name  is  a  household 
word  in  every  corner  of  the  land,  and  wherever  it  is 
known  this  also  is  known,  that  it  is  his  supreme  desire 
that  righteousness, — the  righteousness  which  exalts  a 
nation, — should  prevail  in  this  land,  in  the  government 
and  among  the  people,  in  every  section  and  with  all 
classes,  both  at  home  and  abroad. 


ADDKESS  BY  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

Pkesident  of  the  United  States 
AT  CARNEGIE   HALL 


Mr.  Chairman,  my  Friends,  and  Neighbors: — 

I  CALL  you  this,  for  if  this  meeting  means  anything  it 
means  a  communion  of  the  embodied  spirit  of  friendship 
and  neighborliness  working  through  tlie  Church  for  gene- 
rations. I  am  glad  to  greet  you  to-night.  I  belong  to 
a  closely  allied  Church,  the  Dutch  Reformed,  and  I  want 
to  tell  you  a  curious  incident  that  was  related  to  me  to- 
night by  one  of  the  two  gentlemen,  who  on  your  behalf, 
met  me  and  brought  me  here. 

Mr.  Robert  C.  Ogden  mentioned  that  260  or  270 
years  ago  the  first  church  of  my  denomination  to  be 
erected  here  in  this  city  was  put  up  by  a  contract  with 
one  of  his  ancestors  who  dwelt  in  Connecticut.  You  see 
that  even  in  those  days  we  Dutchmen  had  to  get  the 
Yankees  to  do  some  things  for  us.  This  is  in  a  sense 
symbolical  of  how  much  the  Church  has  counted  in  the 
life  of  our  people,  that  the  descendants  of  those  who 
worshiped  and  of  those  who  were  under  contract  to  put 
the  church  up  in  which  the  worshiping  should  be  done 
should  be  here  to-night  meeting  together. 

I  have  another  bond  with  you.     There  are  not  so 

17  257 


258  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

many  Dutch  Reformed  churclics  in  this  country — not  as 
many,  I  often  think,  as  should  be  in  this  city — and 
during  a  considerable  portion  of  my  life  I  have  had 
to  go  to  a  Presbyterian  church  because  there  was  no 
Dutch  Reformed  church  to  go  to.  In  my  early  years 
I  went  to  the  Madison  Square  Presbyterian  Church,  of 
which  the  Rev.  Dr.  Adams  was  then  ]>astor,  and  those 
here  who  remember  him  will  agree  with  me  in  saying 
that  he  was  one  of  the  few  men  concerning  whom  it 
is  not  inappropriate  to  use  the  adjective  with  Avhich  I 
shall  describe  him,  for  he  was  in  very  truth  a  saintly  man. 

I  remember,  especially,  now  that  I  have  children  of 
my  own  to  care  for,  the  view  expressed  by  Dr.  Adams 
that  we  should  be  careful  to  see  to  it  that  tilings  which 
are  perfectly  simple  to  us  are  made  clear  to  the  children. 
Dr.  Adams  had  a  grandson,  whom  he  found  to  be  ex- 
ceedingly afraid  of  going  into  the  church  alone.  Noth- 
ing could  induce  the  boy  to  enter  the  great  building  by 
himself.  One  day  the  doctor  took  him  down  into  the 
auditorium  and  up  the  empty,  echoing  aisle.  The  little 
follow  looked  al)out  a  while,  and  then  asked  : — 

"Grandpa,  where  is  the  zeal?" 

"The  what?"  queried  the  grandfather. 

"  The  zeal.  Why,  don't  you  know  that  the  '  zeal  of 
thine  house  hath  eaten  me  up  ?' "  The  little  fellow  had 
heard  that  verse  and  he  had  got  it  so  twisted  up  that  he 
had  decided  he  would  rather  not  go  into  the  house  of 
the  Lord  unprotected. 

It  is  a  pleasure  on  behalf  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  to  bid  you  welcome  on  this  hundredth  anniversary 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  259 

of  the  beginning  of  organized  home  missionary  work 
by  the  Presbyterian  Church.  In  one  sense,  of  course, 
all  fervent  and  earnest  church  work  is  a  part  of  home 
missionary  work.  Every  earnest  and  zealous  believer, 
every  man  or  woman  who  is  a  doer  of  the  work  and  not 
a  hearer  only,  is  a  lifelong  missionary  in  his  or  her  field 
of  labor,  a  missionary  by  precept,  and  by  what  is  a 
thousandfold  more  than  precept,  by  practice.  Every 
such  believer  exerts  influence  on  those  within  reach, 
somewhat  by  word,  and  infinitely  more  through  the 
ceaseless,  yet  well-nigh  unfelt  pressure,  all  the  stronger 
when  its  exercise  is  unconscious  of  example,  of  broad, 
loving,  charitable,  neighborly  kindness. 

But  to-night  we  celebrate  a  hundred  years  of  mission- 
ary work  done  not  incidently  but  with  set  purpose ;  a 
hundred  years  of  earnest  effort  to  spread  abroad  the 
gospel,  to  lay  deep  the  moral  foundation  upon  which  true 
national  greatness  must  rest.  The  century  that  has 
closed  has  seen  the  conquest  of  this  continent  by  our 
people.  To  conquer  a  continent  is  rough  work.  All 
really  great  work  is  rough  in  the  doing,  though  it  may 
seem  smooth  enough  to  those  who  look  back  upon  it,  or 
to  contemporaries  who  look  at  it  only  from  afar. 

The  roughness  is  an  unavoidable  part  of  the  doing  of 
the  deed.  We  need  display  but  scant  patience  with 
those  who,  sitting  at  ease  in  their  own  homes,  delight  to 
exercise  a  querulous  and  censorious  spirit  of  judgment 
upon  their  brethren  who,  whatever  their  shortcomings, 
are  doing  strong  men's  work  as  they  bring  the  light  of 
civilization  into  the  world's  dark  places. 


260  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

The  criticism  of  those  who  live  softly,  remote  from 
tlic  strife,  is  of  little  value ;  but  it  Avould  be  difficult  to 
overestimate  the  value  of  the  missionary  work  of  those 
Avho  go  out  to  share  the  hardship,  and  while  sharing  it, 
not  to  talk  about  but  to  wage  war  against  the  myriad 
forms  of  brutality. 

It  is  such  missionary  work,  it  is  because  of  the  spirit 
that  underlies  the  missionary  work,  that  the  pioneers 
are  prevented  from  sinking  perilously  near  the  level 
of  the  savagery  against  which  they  contend.  AVithout 
it  the  conquest  of  this  continent  would  have  had  little 
but  an  animal  side.  Without  it  the  pioneers'  fierce  and 
rude  virtues  and  somber  faults  Avould  have  been  left 
unlit  by  the  flame  of  pure  and  loving  aspiration. 

Without  it  the  life  of  this  country  would  have  been  a 
life  of  inconceivably  hard  and  barren  materialism.  Be- 
cause of  it  deep  beneath  and  through  the  national  char- 
acter there  runs  that  poAver  of  firm  adlierence  to  a  lofty 
ideal  upon  which  the  safety  of  the  nation  will  ultimately 
depend.  Honor,  thrice  honor,  to  those  who  for  three 
generations,  during  the  period  of  this  people's  great  ex- 
pansion, have  seen  that  the  force  of  the  living  truth 
expanded  as  the  nation  expanded. 

They  bore  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day,  they 
toiled  obscurely  and  died  unknown,  that  we  might  c(^me 
into  a  glorious  heritage.  Let  us  prove  the  sincerity  of 
our  homage  to  their  faith  and  their  works  by  the  way  in 
which  we  manfully  carry  toward  completion  what  under 
them  was  so  well  begun. 

And  now,  my  friends,  coming  up  here,  I  made  up  my 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  201 

mind  that  I  would  speak  to  you  as  illustratiuc;  tlio  spirit 
of  cliaractcr  and  doconcy,  and  of  the  spirit  of  national 
righteousness,  of  something  that  has  taken  place  on  this 
day  and  of  something  else  that  has  happened  within  the 
last  ten  days, — of  the  action  of  this  nation  to-day,  on  this 
Tuesday,  the  20th  day  of  IVIay,  1902,  which  has  cul- 
minated in  starting  a  free  republic  on  its  course  in  the 
world. 

That  has  represented  four  years'  work.  Tliere  were 
blunderings  and  shortcomings  in  that  work,  of  course, 
and  there  were  many  of  little  faith  who  could  sec  only 
the  blunderings  and  shortcomings,  but  it  represents  work 
triumphantly  done.  And  I  think  that  the  citizens  of 
this  republic  have  a  right  to  feel  proud  that  we  have 
kept  our  pledges  to  the  letter,  and  that  we  have  estab- 
lished a  new  international  precedent. 

I  do  not  remember — and  I  have  thought  a  good  deal 
about  it — a  single  case  in  modern  times  where,  as  the 
result  of  such  a  war,  the  victorious  nation  has  contented 
itself  with  setting  a  new  nation  free,  and  fitted  it  as  well 
as  it  could  be  fitted  for  the  difficult  path  of  self-govern- 
ment. 

And,  mind  you,  that  anarchy  and  ruin  would  have 
lain  before  the  island  if  we  had  contented  ourselves  with 
the  victories  of  war  and  had  turned  this  island  loose  to 
run  for  itself. 

For  three  years  the  hard  work  of  peace  has  supple- 
mented the  work  of  war.  I  sometimes  hear  the  army 
attacked,  and  I've  even  heard  missionaries  attacked. 
But  it  is  well  for  us,  when  we  have  a  great  work  to  do, 


262  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

in  cither  peace  or  war,  that  "we  have  tlie  army  and  navy 
as  instruments  for  it. 

For  three  years  the  representatives  of  the  army  have 
done  their  best  to  build  up  a  school  system,  to  establish 
sanitary  measures,  to  preserve  order,  and  to  lay  the  way 
open  for  the  starting  of  industries — to  do  everything  in 
their  power  so  that  the  new  government  might  start  out 
witli  the  chances  in  its  favor.  Now,  as  a  nation,  we  bid 
it  God-speed,  and  we  intend  to  see  to  it  that  it  shall  have 
all  the  aid  that  we  can  give  it.  And  I  trust  and  believe 
that  our  people  will,  through  the  national  Legislature, 
see  to  it  very  shortly  that  they  have  the  advantage  of 
entering  into  peculiarly  close  relations  M'ith  us  in  our 
economic  life. 

That  is  the  deed  which  was  consummated  to-day. 
Now  for  the  other. 

Ten  days  ago  an  appalling  calamity  befell  another 
portion  of  the  West  Indian  Islands,  territory  belonging 
to  two  different  nations  ;  islands  not  under  our  flag,  but 
their  need  was  great,  and  this  people  saw  the  need  and 
met  it  as  speedily  as  possible.  Congress  at  once  appro- 
priated large  sums  of  money.  They  were  augmented 
by  private  gifts.  And,  gentlemen,  I  found  as  usual  the 
army  and  navy  the  instruments  through  which  the  work 
to  be  done  could  be  done.  The  minute  I  wanted  men 
who  could  drop  the  work  they  w^ere  engaged  upon, 
assured  that  neither  pestilence  nor  volcano  would  make 
them  swerve  from  their  duty,  men  of  incorruptible 
integrity,  I  turned  to  the  army  and  navy,  and  we  sent 
them  to  the  stricken  island.    I'm  sure  you  all  feel  proud 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  263 

that  ships  bearing  the  American  flag  should  be  among 
the  first — I  think  the  very  first — to  take  relief  to  those 
overtaken  by  so  api)alling  a  disaster. 

It  is  a  fine  thing  to  have  at  the  opening  of  this  cen- 
tury such  omens  of  righteous  acting,  of  international 
brotherhood  ;  omens  of  the  future  where  a  sense  of  duty 
to  the  neighborhood  will  extend  beyond  national  lines, 
as  the  actions  which  culminated  in  the  starting  to-day 
of  the  free  republic  of  Cuba  on  the  paths  of  indepen- 
dence, and  in  being  first  to  reach  out  a  helping  hand  to 
those  overwhelmed  by  disaster  without  regard  to  the  flag 
to  which  they  paid  allegiance. 


PRESIDENT  ROOSEVELT'S  ADDRESS 

AT  THE 

OVERFLOW  MEETING  IN  THE  CENTRAL  PRESBYTE- 
RIAN CHURCH 


I  AM  glad  to  have  a  chance  to  say  a  word  to  you  this 
evening,  and  I  know  you  will  jxirdon  me  if  it  is  only  a 
word,  for  I  did  not  anticipate  speaking  at  another  meet- 
ing. Of  course,  the  very  first  duty  any  nation  has  got 
to  perform  is  to  keep  in  order  the  atfairs  of  its  own 
household,  to  do  what  is  best  for  its  own  life.  And,  as 
has  been  so  well  and  thoughtfully  said  by  you,  Dr.  van 
Dyke,  in  your  speech  this  evening,  the  vital  thing  is  the 
spiritual,  not  the  material.  Even  Napoleon  said  that  in 
war  the  moral  was  as  to  the  material  as  ten  to  one,  and  it 
is  just  exactly  so  in  civil  life.  I  do  not  mean  to  under- 
value the  material.  We  have  got  to  have  thrift  and 
business  interests  and  all  that  spring  from  them  as  a 
foundation,  upon  which  to  build,  yet  a  nation  would 
seem  to  be  but  a  pretty  poor  building  if  there  was  noth- 
ing 1)ut  the  basement. 

It  is  an  admirable  thing  to  have  great  material  riches 
if  we  do  not  overestimate  the  position  that  the  material 
well-being  should  occupy  in  nature.  It  is  a  great  thing 
to  have  wealtli  if  wo  have  an  idea  of  the  relative  value 
of  wealth  with  reference  to  the  spirit.     This  sounds  like 

201 


CENTENNIAL  OF  HOME  MISSIONS  265 

j)rcaeliin^,  but  it  is  only  an  expression  of  a  political  truism 
if  you  look  at  it  in  tlK3  right  way. 

We  have  spread  during  the  j)ast  century  over  the 
whole  continent.  Do  you  realize  that  before  the  begin- 
ning of  that  century  any  one  who  went  west  of  the 
INIississippi  Avent  into  a  foreign  land  ?  But  as  we  have 
expanded  naturally,  so  it  has  been  our  good  fortune  that 
those  who  should  go  hand  in  hand  with  it  were  those 
laboring  for  the  expansion  of  the  Christian  Church  and 
all  that  goes  with  it. 

And  I  don't  think  that  we  realize  the  way  in  which 
the  most  vital  need  of  that  movement  was  met  by  those 
men  who  went  out  as  pastors  in  the  little  struggling 
communities  where  the  people  w^re  laying  the  founda- 
tions of  what  were  to  be  the  great  States  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley  which  WTre  to  spread  on  to  the  Pacific 
Coast.  The  men  who  went  out  in  that  way  gave  our 
people  the  spiritual  lift  that  was  vital  to  them ;  that 
has  made  us  in  the  end  a  great  nation  instead  of  a  nation 
of  well-to-do  people.  We  want  well-to-do  people,  but 
if  they  were  the  only  kind  we  had  we  would  come  far 
short  of  what  we  have  a  right  to  demand  of  ourselves. 

There  is  a  tremendous  work  looming  up  before  the 
churches  of  this  natiou  which  the  churches  must  do. 
Our  nation  has  been  progressing.  In  some  ways  this 
progress  has  been  for  the  right,  but  in  others  for  what 
we  have  far  less  cause  to  be  jiroud  of.  The  tremendous 
sweep  of  our  industrial  development  has  brought  us 
face  to  face  with  problems  which  have  concerned  for 
years  the  people  of  the  Old  World.     This  progress  has 


266  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

increased  the  effective  power  of  forces  for  good  as  well 
as  forces  for  evil.  The  forces  for  evil  in  our  great 
cities,  as  those  cities  grow,  become  more  and  more  men- 
acing to  those  communities.  If  our  country  is  to  grow, 
those  forces  must  be  met  by  forces  equally  strong  for 
good.  More  and  more  in  the  future  our  churches  have 
got  to  realize  that  we  have  a  right  to  expect  them  to 
take  a  lead  in  shaping  these  forces  for  good. 

I  am  not  going  to  verge  on  the  domain  of  theology 
or  dogma,  and  I  don't  think  in  this  day  there  will  be 
any  dissent  from  the  proposition  that  in  this  work-a-day 
world  we  must  generally  judge  men  by  their  fruits,  that 
we  cannot  accept  a  long  succession  of  thistle  cro])s  as 
indicating  fig  trees.  And  we  have  a  right  to  expect  the 
Church  to  set  a  high  standard  of  public  service  through- 
out the  whole  land.  The  Church  must  find  expression 
tlirough  the  life  work  of  its  members,  not  only  on  Sun- 
days, but  on  week  days  ;  not  only  within  these  church 
walls,  but  at  home  and  in  business.  I  don't  know  of 
any  ]ilirase  that  is  less  attractive  than  "  Business  is  busi- 
ness," when  it  is  used  to  mean  what  verges  on  rascality. 

We  have  a  right  to  expect  that  you  will  show  your 
faith  by  your  works,  and  that  the  people  who  have  the 
advantage  of  church  and  home  life  must  remember  that 
as  much  has  been  given  them,  much  will  bo  expected 
of  them.  We  have  a  right  to  expect  of  you  that  you 
will  not  merely  speak  for  righteousness,  but  that  you 
will  do  righteousness  in  your  own  homes  and  in  the 
world  at  large. 


RESPONSE  BY  THE   MODERATOR 

THE 

EEV.  HENRY  VANDYKE,  D.  D.,  LL.D. 

Princeton,  N.  J. 


When  the  long  applause  following  the  President's 
address  in  Carnegie  Hall  had  died  away,  a  hymn  was 
sung,  written  by  Dr.  H,  C.  McCook,  of  Philadelphia — 
a  noble  poem  set  to  fitting  music.  Then  Dr.  van  Dyke 
arose  to  respond  for  the  General  Assembly,  beginning 
with  the  apt  words  : — 

It  is  not  every  man  who  has  the  privilege  of  address- 
ing two  presidents  in  tlie  same  speech.  To  you,  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  I  am  charged  to  convey 
the  respectful,  loyal,  and  aifectionate  salutations  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America. 
We  are  glad  you  are  here.  You  have  a  knack  of  being 
in  the  right  place  at  the  right  time.  We  are  glad  our 
views  in  regard  to  the  great  events  of  this  day  coincide 
with  yours.  The  General  Assembly  has  already  sent  this 
telegram,  which  I  hope  you  will  approve  and  sanction  : 

"  To  T.  Estrada  Palma, 

"  President  of  the  Republic  of  Cuba, 
"  Havana,  Cuba : 
"The  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  the  United  States  of  America  sends  congratulations, 
and  prays  for  God's  blessing  upon  the  new  republic." 

267 


268  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

We  are  grateful,  sir,  for  tlic  peace  and  liberty  enjoyed 
by  our  Church  under  the  Governnu'ut  of  wiiich  you  are 
the  chief  executive.  We  have  no  exceptional  favors 
to  ask  of  that  Government.  If  we  had,  it  is  not  likely 
tiiat  we  should  get  them  ;  for  we  do  not  believe  that 
favoritism  is  to  have  a  place  in  your  administration. 
We  interpret  your  presence  here  not  in  any  denomina- 
tional or  sectarian  sense,  but  simply  as  an  expression 
of  your  vital  sympathy  with  the  great  work  of  home 
missions, — as  a  token  of  your  cordial  interest  in  the 
Presbyterian  regiment  of  that  army  of  the  Lord  which 
is  trying  to  make  and  keep  this  a  Christian  land. 

To  you,  the  President  of  the  Board  of  Home  Mis- 
sions, I  offer  sincere  congratulations  on  the  hundredth 
anniversary  of  that  great  work  in  which  you  are  such 
an  earnest,  wise,  and  successful  leader.  Some  outline 
of  the  history  of  that  work  \\\\\  be  presented  to  us  to- 
night. It  is  for  me  to  state,  in  few  and  sim])le  words, 
why  the  cause  of  home  missions  is  especially  dear  to 
all  true  Presbyterians.  There  are  three  reasons  which 
have  peculiar  force  : — 

1.  The  Presbyterian  Church  as  it  now  exists  is 
largely  the  creation  of  home  missionary  work.  In  the 
rapid  growth  of  our  country  the  places  which,  fifty 
years  ago,  were  on  the  frontier,  and  into  which  mission- 
aries were  sent  to  plant  the  seed  of  true  religion,  have 
now  become  populous  and  powerful  centers  of  Presby- 
terianism.  The  strength  of  our  Clnu'ch  now  resides  in 
regions  which,  two  generations  ago,  were,  to  a  large 
extent,  fields  of  missionary  effort.     Perhaps  nine-tenths, 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  NKSIONS  269 

certainly  three-fourths,  of  our  present  working  Presby- 
terian force  is  virtually  the  product  of  home  mission 
effort  in  the  nineteenth  century.  Gratitude  alone  would 
bind  us  to  love  the  cause  which  has  done  such  great 
things  for  our  Church.  But  wisdom  also  urges  us  to 
make  the  experience  of  the  past  our  guide  for  the  future, 
and  to  cultivate  with  diligence  the  new  fields  for  evan- 
gelization in  our  land,  in  order  that  they  in  turn  may 
become  our  sources  of  strength  in  the  development  of 
the  United  States  in  the  twentieth  century. 

2.  The  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  of 
America  has  a  deep  love  for  home  missions  because  it 
has  a  peculiar  relation  to  the  great  republic.  It  made 
greater  sacrifices,  in  all  probability,  than  any  other 
church  for  the  cause  of  liberty  in  the  American  Revo- 
lution. Its  form  of  government  has  a  close  resemblance 
to  that  of  our  nation.  A  hundred  and  thirty  years  ago 
a  Tory  wrote  of  it :  "  The  Presbyterians  must  not  be 
allowed  to  grow  too  great ;  they  are  all  of  republican 
principles."  The  American  principle  of  religious  liberty 
is  most  dear  to  the  heart  of  our  Church.  We  feel  also 
that  Presbyterian  ism  has  an  especial  contribution  to 
make  to  the  religious  life  of  our  country.  A  carefully 
educated  ministry ;  a  preaching  of  the  truths  of  C'hris- 
tianity  on  the  supreme  authority  of  the  word  of  God  ; 
an  orderly,  reasonable,  systematic  presentation  of  the 
great  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  reformed  faith  ;  a 
plan  of  church  organization  which  combines  the  free- 
dom of  popular  rule  with  the  compactness  and  unity  of 
an   interwoven   system  of  representative   assemblies, — 


270  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

these  are  elements  Avliicli  we  feel  are  needed  in  tlie 
healthy  growth  of  Christianity  in  our  country.  And  in 
order  to  suj)ply  these  elements  the  Presbyterian  Church 
must  continue  and  enlarge  the  work  of  home  missions. 

3.  But  the  chief  reason  wliy  we  love  tliis  great  work 
is  because  we  feel  and  acknowledge  the  supreme  debt 
which  every  citizeu  owes  to  his  country, — the  obligation 
to  do  the  best  that  he  can  for  her  highest  welfare, — that 
welfare  which  is  not  physical,  but  spiritual.  Nothing 
will  so  surely  promote  the  true  happiness  and  the  last- 
ing glory  of  our  country  as  the  spread  of  the  religion 
of  Jesus  Christ  among  the  homes  and  in  the  hearts  of 
the  people.  For  this  end  we  must  labor  in  harmony 
with  all  other  cliurches  of  Christ,  having  no  rivalry 
with  them,  but  a  glorious  emulation  in  doing  good. 

The  work  of  credal  revision  upon  which  this  General 
Assembly  of  1902  has  put  its  approval  has  a  distinctly 
home  missionary  emphasis  and  bearing.  It  is  evangelical 
and  evangelistic.  It  sounds  the  note  of  advance  along 
the  old  lines  of  Cliristian  service  to  God  and  country. 

The  Presbyterian  Church  has  a  "  system  of  doctrine  " 
in  its  mind,  and  a  gospel  of  love  for  all  men  in  its  heart. 
Our  hope  is  that  the  poet's  prayer  may  be  fulfilled  in 
her  history, 

"Thai  mind  and  heart,  according  well, 
May  make  one  music  as  before, — 
But  vaster." 

So  may  her  faithful  labors  help  to  make  our  land  a  part 
of  the  only  kingdom  whose  royal  rights  we  acknowledge, 
— the  kino^dom  of  our  God  and  of  his  Christ. 


A  VISION  OF  THE  FUTURE 

BY  THE 

REV.  CHAELES  L.  THOMPSON,  D.  D.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
(Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions.) 


This  is  the  20tli  of  May.  To-day  we  furled  our  flag 
on  Morro  Castle  and  cheered  the  Cuban  colors.  Thus 
have  we  made  good  the  promise  of  our  martyred  Presi- 
dent. We  have  kept  our  faith,  and,  like  the  apostle, 
the  crown  for  which  we  look  is  a  crown  of  righteous- 
ness, which  must  come  by  means  of  righteousness.  Thus 
home  missions  and  Americanism  are  one. 

For  two  days  we  have  dealt  with  the  past.  Now  let 
us  face  about.  Let  us  get  a  vision  of  the  future.  We 
are  on  the  eve  of  a  great  revival.  It  will  be  a  revival 
of  home  missions.  It  must  be — if  we  would  save  west- 
ern and  eastern  communities  from  the  lust  of  mammon, 
and  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  and  the  pride  of  life.  It  must 
be — if  we  would  measure  up  to  our  new  national  ol^li- 
gations.  It  must  be — if  we  would  honor  our  position 
among  the  nations — if  we  would  be  the  salt  in  the  human 
lump,  the  sunrise  of  a  world's  gloom. 

We  have  expanded  not  in  area  only,  though  we  are 
within  100  miles  of  semi-girdling  the  globe;  not  in 
wealth  only,  though  we  are  the  richest  of  nations  ;  not 

271 


272  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

in  prestige  merely,  tliough  the  sheaves  of  the  nations 
bow  to  our  sheaf  of  commerce — but  we  have  now  a 
world-frontage  for  the  blessing  or  the  cursing  of  man- 
kind. Our  expansion  was  not  caused  by  the  shock  of 
guns.  That  was  the  occasion  only.  The  cause  is  what 
Kidd  called  the  intensity  of  national  life.  Evolutionary 
forces  have  been  working  through  the  centuries.  From 
many  fields  of  diffused  action  they  have  come  to  con- 
centrated action  on  these  shores. 

The  mixture  of  allied  races  among  us,  Spencer  says, 
will  produce  a  more  powerful  type  of  man  than  has  ex- 
isted hitherto.  That  type  is  showing  the  signs  of  this 
new  power.  We  are  at  the  whirling  center  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  life.  Astronomy  tells  us  that  vapor  in  action 
flung  off  worlds.  American  life  has  come  to  its  intensity, 
where  it  must  fling  off  new  worlds.  Expansion  is  not 
an  election.  It  is  not  a  mechanism.  It  is  the  necessity 
of  intense  life.  The  dreams  of  centuries  condensed  here 
become  new  possessions  and  new  duties. 

What  now  is  the  situation  ?  As  to  geography — we 
are  midway  of  the  world.  No  nation  ever  so  fronted 
nations  as  do  we.  As  to  population — we  are  the  last 
result  of  time,  the  composite,  slow-evolving  highest  type 
of  man.  As  to  principles — our  ideals  of  civil  and  re- 
ligious freedom  are  those  which  sages  and  prophets 
longed  to  see  and  died  without  the  siglit.  As  to  capacity 
— we  first  of  people  may  be  a  world  power.  A  hun- 
dred years  ago  the  Anglo-Saxons  numbered  20,000,000. 
To-day,  130,000,000— controlling  directly  522,000,000. 
And  the  vital  center  of  that  race  is  on  our  shores. 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  273 

What  now  is  the  Christian  duty  of  people  situated  as 
we  are?  Professor  Phelps  has  said:  ''Spiritual  strategy 
demands  that  the  evangelization  of  this  country  should 
be  kept  ahead  of  every  other  movement  for  the  conver- 
sion of  the  world."  Let  us  abate  nothing  of  the  need 
of  education,  philanthropy,  statesmanship — nothing  of 
the  claims  of  other  nations  whom  we  ought  to  bless. 
But  what  is  the  demand  of  strategy  ?  Hold  your  base. 
Sherman  could  march  to  the  sea  and  back  again  be- 
cause he  was  marching  through  vacuity.  But  Grant 
sat  down  and  smoked  and  waited  for  months  in  front 
of  Vicksburg.  It  had  been  folly  to  march  around  in 
an  advance  to  the  Gulf.  The  military  manual  says, 
"  Hold  your  ground."  The  first  missionary  word  ever 
flung  into  this  world  was,  "  Begin  at  Jerusalem,  then  take 
the  rest  of  Judea.     Then  advance  on  Samaria." 

Consider,  now,  the  home  mission  duty  of  the  hour. 
We  are  on  the  verge  of  a  new  century.  Let  us  take  a 
bold  look  outward — not  the  look  of  Moses  to  a  land  of 
rest ;  rather  of  some  daring  Cortez  on  some  Darien  peak, 
looking  over  the  sea  of  movements  and  conflicts  as  wide 
as  humanity. 

OUE  CITIES 

And  first  of  all,  behold  the  Jerusalem  of  our  polyglot, 
congested,  and  seething  cities.  Am  I  verging  on  a  tru- 
ism ?  Wake  up,  then,  ye  dwellers  in  towns,  to  a  truism 
that  is  startling  !  Here  in  New  York  we  have  been 
having  a  danger  zone  on  Fourth  Avenue.  There  was 
the  rush  of  an  ungoverned  train  that  crushed  out  lives. 
There  was   a   crash  of  dynamite   that   shattered   great 

18 


274  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

fabrics.  There  was  a  sinking  block  of  houses  and  flee- 
ing households — all  in  quick  succession.  We  think  of 
danger  zones  in  the  slums.  We  send  a  missionary 
down  there  to  swing  a  red  lantern.  But  do  we  ever 
think  of  other  danger  zones  on  Murray  Hill  ?  Trains 
of  social  destruction,  that  plunge  on  regardless  of  sig- 
nals ;  explosions  that  can  shake  our  proudest  houses ; 
homes  that  are  sinking  to  subways  where  the  mining  has 
been  silent  and  unknown.  Perhaps  the  tunnel  starts  at 
the  Battery,  where  it  receives  the  European  explosives ; 
but  it  may  undermine  to  the  proudest  avenue.  Let  me 
show  you  a  red  light. 

Consider  our  second  city.  There  are  6000  saloons  in 
Chicago,  employing  31,600  persons.  There  are  17  the- 
aters open  on  Sunday  evening,  in  which,  on  a  recent 
Sunday  night,  there  were  17,160  men  between  15  and 
45  years  of  age.  In  a  single  ward  there  are  312  houses 
of  impurity,  with  1708  inmates.  Fifty  thousand  men 
are  engaged  in  demoralizing  places.  Behold  the  red 
lantern — and  it  waves  on  your  doorsteps. 

THE  SOUTH 

Again,  look  at  the  Southern  mountains.  Read  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  "Winning  of  the  West,"  and  discover  that 
the  first  men  to  tackle  the  wilderness  beyond  the  moun- 
tains were  not  Yankees  from  Boston,  nor  Dutchmen 
from  New  York.  They  were  men  of  tlie  South — the 
Carolinas  and  Virginia  ;  and  the  President  says,  "Of 
course,  they  were  Presbyterians."  Of  course.  Presby- 
terians have  ever  been  pathfinders.     John  Calvin  found 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  275 

the  path  to  a  Christian  republic.  John  Knox  found  the 
path  to  the  destruction  of  prehicy  among  the  Grampians. 
St.  Patrick,  that  blessed  old  Irish  Presbyterian,  found 
the  path  of  freedom  on  Irish  moors.  So,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  wlien  an  empire  was  to  be  staked  out  beyond  the 
Alleghenies,  and  we  inquire  for  American  pathfinders, 
in  the  Southwest  we  do  not  think  so  much  of  Daniel 
Boone  as  of  Gideon  Blackburn  ;  across  the  Mississippi, 
not  so  much  of  John  C.  Fremont  as  of  Daniel  Baker; 
in  the  far  Northwest,  less  of  Lewis  and  Clark  than  of 
"Whitman  and  Spaulding  ;  and  in  California,  less  of  the 
"  49ers  "  than  of  the  missionaries  who  camped  on  their 
trail.     Not  only  pathfinders — they  were  pathmakers. 

Of  course,  then,  when  the  soldiers  of  the  Revolution 
became  pioneers,  it  was  the  Scotch-Irish  of  the  Carolinas 
and  Virginia  who  headed  the  march.  Down  through 
the  valleys  of  the  French  Broad  went  Sevier  and  Camp- 
bell, and  others  who  had  fought  at  King's  Mountain 
and  flung  the  British  back  when  the  Tory  population  of 
Carolina  failed  to  respond. 

And  now  the  children  of  those  men  call  for  help. 
They  are  lost  among  the  mountains,  and  by  little  fault 
of  theirs.  Rather  by  Adam's  fault.  Everywhere  and 
always  people  left  to  themselves  are  in  danger  of  degen- 
eracy. Even  a  Scotchman  will  degenerate  when  he  is 
abandoned.  It  is  the  duty  of  our  Church  to  reclaim 
those  people. 

Do  you  say  there  are  other  calls  more  urgent  ? — that 
it  matters  little  to  the  Republic  whether  a  million  or 
two   mountaineers  ever  get  on  their  feet  again  ;  that  the 


276  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

work  is  not  strategic?  Let  me  remind  you  that  they 
have  held  strategic  positions  twice  already.  Once  in 
the  closing  days  of  the  Revolution.  Again,  in  the  Civil 
AVar,  when,  in  proportion,  more  of  tall  Tennesseeans 
stood  up  beside  the  flag  than  of  any  other  State.  They 
may  hold  tiie  key  again.  But  strategy  or  no — there 
are  two  things  bigger  than  strategy.  One  is  the  obli- 
gation to  care  for  our  own.  The  other  is  to  accept  the 
mind  of  Christ,  and  up  on  the  mountains  wild  and  bare 
to  seek  the  sheep  that  are  lost. 

It  were  not  difficult  to  conjure  up  a  vision  of  a  new 
South  in  the  twentieth  century,  in  Avhich  Southern 
Highlanders  would  spring  forward  to  the  leadership 
they  held  a  century  ago.  The  imperative  of  patriot- 
ism to-day  is  to  rebuild  the  South.  And  millions  of 
money  will  not  do  it.  It  calls  for  human  bodies  and 
souls.  It  calls  for  an  advance  of  Christian  education 
and  Christian  sympathy. 

THE  WEST 

With  the  advance  through  the  mountains  we  associate 
the  opening  of  the  West.  On  the  flag  of  the  ordinance 
of  1787  are  these  three  words:  "Liberty,  Education, 
Religion."  To  these  ideas  the  old  Northwest  was  dedi- 
cated. Its  development  is  the  miracle  of  the  first  half 
of  the  century.  From  it  the  opening  of  the  West  came 
on  as  naturally  as  the  morn  slips  into  the  noontide,  until 
now  already  the  Mississippi  Valley  is  the  center  of  our 
empire.  It  is  the  most  American  part  of  the  country. 
It  has  been  built  up  out  of  the  ideals  which  the  men  of 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  277 

New  Englaiul  and  the  Middle  and  Southern  States  car- 
ried over  the  nioimtaius.  And  wiiile  men  of  the  P]ast 
have  yielded  somewhat  to  European  influences,  the  men 
of  the  West  have  kept  their  ideals  and  institutions  true 
to  the  visions  of  Colonial  days.  It  is  our  American 
heritage.  And  it  is  our  mightiest.  No  other  valley 
on  earth  drains  such  resources  as  are  drained  by  the 
Mississippi.  The  center  of  population  is  near  that 
river.  The  center  of  political  influence  seems  to  have 
crossed  it — when  a  single  State  on  its  western  bank 
furnishes  two  Cabinet  officers,  the  leadership  of  the 
House,  and  one  of  the  most  potent  voices  in  the  Sen- 
ate. And  as  you  look  over  that  vast  expanse,  blos- 
soming in  the  light  of  our  best  civilization,  and  ask, 
"  How  came  it  ?"  I  reply,  the  "  Liberty,  Education,  and 
Religion"  emblazoned  on  the  ordinance  of  1787  have 
flung  their  light  across  the  prairies. 

Is  anything  more  needed  there?  Not  intelligence. 
They  have  some  of  the  best  schools  in  the  country. 
The  public  school  system  is  unsurpassed,  and  colleges 
and  great  universities  are  in  every  State.  But  only 
moral  principle  that  shall  control  men  in  public  and  pri- 
vate life  can  hold  that  central  land  true  to  the  aims  of 
its  great  founders.  And  these  have  not  yet  wholly 
triumphed.  Aside  from  the  dangers  of  great  cities  there 
are  fringes  of  darkness  that  portend  possible  storms. 
For  example  :  four  great  Territories  are  knocking  at 
the  doors  of  Congress.  Whence  the  hesitation  ?  Chiefly 
this — unassimilated  elements  of  population ;  some  of  it 
is  Indian,  some  is  Mexican,  some  is  Mormon.    Congress 


278  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

hesitates.  It  docs  well  to  hesitate,  and  only  the  gospel 
of  Christ  can  change  the  conditions  that  canse  the  hesi- 
tation. The  Government  once  admitted  a  Mormon  Ter- 
ritory. It  has  had  trouble  ever  since.  It  is  by  no 
means  sure  the  trouble  is  at  an  end.  For  a  generation 
our  Church  and  the  others  have  been  trying  to  change 
moral  conditions.  They  have  been  working  on  some- 
thing harder  than  the  granite  of  the  Rockies.  And 
now  that  which  was  only  granite  and  resisted,  takes  on 
aggression,  and  advances.  A  few  months  ago  we  issued 
a  statement  declaring  the  doctrines  and  practices  of 
Mormonism  subversive  of  Christianity  and  its  ambitions 
hostile  to  our  Government.  Faint-hearted  politicians 
and  subsidized  editors  made  light  of  the  arraignment. 
But  the  facts  go  on  with  their  terrific  indictment.  And 
now  the  womanhood  of  the  country  is  on  its  knees 
before  Congress,  asking  for  one  effective  barrier.  Again 
Congress  hesitates,  and  again  the  facts  go  on  with  their 
indictment  declaring  that  a  half-dozen  States  and  Terri- 
tories are  in  the  Mormon  grip,  while  1400  missionaries, 
with  more  than  Jesuit  zeal,  are  jjreaching  the  gospel  of 
impurity  in  the  older  States. 

But  those  mountain  valleys  are  going  to  be  redeemed. 
The  schoolhouses  dot  them  and  the  mission  stations  ai'e 
manned — and  another  generation  is  growing  up.  ]\Ioun- 
tains  in  all  ages  are  made  for  liberty.  And  the  liberty 
which  so  often  has  crowned  their  summits  from  Hermon 
and  the  Alps  and  the  Grampians  will  not  fail  in  that 
grandest  and  richest  mountain  region  on  earth.  In 
vision  I  see  another  day.     It  waits  on  the  transforma- 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  279 

tion  of  the  new  century.  Major  Powell  says  there  arc 
100,000,000  acres  waiting  irrigation.  That  means  a 
million  hundred-acre  farms.  And  the  unfailing  rivers 
of  the  mountains  wait  with  their  floods  of  blessing:.  It 
is  only  for  the  hand  of  man  encouraged  by  the  Govern- 
ment to  direct  the  channels  which  shall  transform  deserts 
into  the  gardens  of  the  Lord.  When  that  time  comes 
there  will  be  an  empire  of  the  Rockies  too  free  and  too 
holy  for  any  fanaticism  to  control. 

THE  PACIFIC 

But  a  vision  of  the  new  Rockies  by  no  means  ex- 
hausts our  Canaan.  All  the  undeveloped  part  of  the 
world  (Africa  excepted)  is  around  the  Pacific  Ocean. 
Europe  will  go  on  in  a  circular  way  reliving  its  old  life 
on  gradually  rising  levels.  This  East  will  refine  and 
solidify  and  settle  down.  But  the  moving  pictures  of 
the  world  will  be  on  the  western  coast.  Hence  the  emi- 
nence of  our  Pacific  States.  It  is  they  which  front  the 
hoary  paganism  of  China  and  the  tyrannical  absolutism 
of  Russia.  At  last  the  struggle  for  commercial  suprem- 
acy will  be,  not  across  the  Atlantic,  but  the  Pacific. 

And  that  coast,  so  set  in  the  center  of  future  things, 
is  Christian  only  in  name.  Thank  God  for  the  signal 
lights  of  promise  flung  out  by  brave  men  and  women  ! 
How  sturdily  they  hold  that  picket  line  !  The  Church 
does  not  begin  to  measure  her  obligation  to  that  region. 
For  its  own  sake  and  so  for  ours,  for  the  sake  of  our 
new  islands,  strung  like  emerald  beads  to  mark  the  line 
where  sunrise  and  sunset  meet ;  for  the   sake  of  foreign 


280  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

missions,  which  at  that  line  becomes  one  with  home 
missions — this  triple  plea  emphasizes  our  present  impera- 
tive duty. 

ALASKA 

We  have  not  yet  reached  the  end  of  our  outlook. 
Alaska  presents  a  dream  for  the  twentieth  century. 
Do  you  say  that  is  more  pictorial  than  strategic  ?  Are 
you  sure  ?  Sure  that  never  on  the  broken  piers  of  the 
Aleutian  bridge  Anglo-Saxon  and  Slav  will  meet  to 
contest  for  the  supremacy  of  the  world  and  deter- 
mine whether  absolutism  or  liberty  shall  be  man's  final 
heritage  ? 

And  if  not  strategic  in  that  sense  they  may  be  in 
another.  The  special  agent  of  the  Agricultural  Depart- 
ment of  the  Government  has  just  reported  that  Alaska 
will  sustain  a  population  of  three  millions.  An  empire 
as  large  as  the  three  Pacific  States  may  reach  from  Sax- 
man  to  Point  Barrow.  In  a  few  weeks  five  stations  for 
wireless  telegraphy  will  be  installed  there,  and  across 
those  islands  and  headlands  the  tingling  air  will  carry 
tlie  pulsations  of  commerce  and  government.  Is  it  not 
time  to  install  more  stations  for  Christian  telegraphy — 
that  across  islands  and  headlands  from  Saxman  to  Point 
Barrow  the  air  may  tingle  with  the  messages  from 
heaven  ?  Is  it  then  in  vain  that  our  heroes  on  the 
Yukon  keep  their  lonely  vigils  ?  One  of  them  is  here 
to-night.  For  three  dreadful  winters  he  has  been  ring- 
ing a  church  bell  at  Rampart.  Only  a  few  miners  have 
heard.     But  this  Republic  should  hear.     It  is  the  first 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  281 

faint  call  to  the  advancing  pioneer  lines  to  take  that  land 
in  the  fear  of  God. 

But  even  if  there  be  no  advancing  column,  are  our 
brave  men  wasting  their  lives  when  they  give  them- 
selves for  a  handful  of  miners  ?  Not  if  the  parable  of 
the  lost  sheep  holds — not  if  the  ministry  of  the  Mas- 
ter holds  !  And  shall  we  measure  up  to  the  spirit  of 
the  Master  if  we  neglect  even  those  30,000  Indians 
stranded  on  shores  that  have  become  ours  and  cor- 
rupted by  our  civilization? 

THE  ANTILLES 

Another  picture  I  would  throw  on  the  screen  of  your 
imagination.  Consider  the  physical  formation  of  the 
continent  and  the  lesson  it  suggests.  Alone  of  conti- 
nents, our  mountain  ranges  run  north  and  south.  North 
America  and  South  America  are  bound  together  by  a 
granite  chain  forged  in  the  elemental  fires,  by  Avhich 
nature  suggests  a  unity  at  once  of  structure  and  of  des- 
tiny. This  Western  Continent  is  one.  So  far  its  unity 
has  not  been  apparent.  The  southern  half,  as  rich  as 
the  northern,  has  been  held  back  for  centuries.  Nearly 
a  half  score  of  petty  republics  are  staggering  blindly 
toward  ideals  which  their  national  origins  make  them 
impotent  to  realize  ;  while  among  them  Britain,  France, 
and  Holland  hold  doubtful  possessions,  with  Germany 
wildly  striving  for  a  foothold.  And  it  has  not  been  ours 
to  interfere.  But  suddenly  the  Almighty  took  a  hand 
in  the  conflict.  The  crash  of  our  guns,  shotted  to 
deliver  Cuba  from  intolerable  oppression,  did  more  than 


282  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

that  for  wliicli  they  were  sighted.  They  broke  open 
gates  of  darkness  on  whose  hinges  was  the  rust  of  cen- 
turies. Suddenly  the  isles  of  the  Caribbean  beckoned 
for  our  help.  And  far  beyond  them,  lands  under  the 
Southern  Cross  emerged  as  an  opportunity  for  our  prin- 
ciples and  institutions.  Shall  we  not  enter  the  open 
fields,  not  indeed  with  political  intent,  but  with  those 
moral  forces  which  have  lifted  the  upper  half  of  the 
continent  and  are  capable  of  lifting  the  lower  half  to 
equal  glory — and  thus  at  last  assert  what  nature  said  in 
the  throes  of  geologic  ages  :  North  and  South  America 
are  one  ?  And  if  any  shall  say,  "  Religions  go  by 
parallels,  and  the  form  of  Christianity  which  freighted 
the  Spanish  ships  of  the  sixteenth  century  is  as  good  for 
southern  America  as  for  southern  Europe,"  I  have  only 
to  reply  :  "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them."  There 
is  only  one  reason  why  South  American  republics  can- 
not thrive  :  A  republic  without  an  open  Bible  never  has 
thriven.  Look  at  the  beautiful  islands  at  our  southern 
door — islands  where  every  prospect  pleases,  where 
nature  has  been  lavish  to  the  last  degree,  and  where  the 
fruit  of  the  soil  has  been  ignorance,  superstition,  and 
immorality.  From  such  conditions  no  good  republic 
ever  rises.  Nor  can  Ave,  even  in  our  strength,  afford  to 
tie  such  weights  to  our  feet.  For  however  we  may 
make  an  imaginary  Panama  Canal  the  boundary  between 
us  and  South  America,  there  is  no  such  boundary  be- 
tween us  and  the  islands.  They  are  ours,  and  we  must 
be  theirs. 

And  if  any  shall  say,   "  They  are  unimportant ;  re- 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  283 

serve  your  missionary  enterprise  for  more  worthy  occa- 
sions/' let  me  call  up  a  picture  of  to-morrow.  It  is 
the  middle  of  this  century.  I  see  the  commerce  of  the 
world  in  converging  lines  approach  the  Caribbean  Sea. 
I  see  it  in  stately  procession  from  northern  and  southern 
Europe,  from  North  and  South  America,  move  into  the 
great  canal  that  binds  two  oceans — for  the  Pacific  has 
risen  in  the  might  of  her  millions  and  beckoned  the 
white  fleets  of  the  world.  And  as  those  lines  converge 
toward  the  Caribbean,  the  Antilles  on  every  side  throw 
out  the  green  flags  of  their  summits  in  welcome  to  their 
beautiful  harbors.  I  see  along  the  shores  of  those 
islands,  from  St.  Thomas  to  Cuba,  prosperous  cities 
enriched  bv  the  interchang-es  of  nations  and  blooming 
in  the  liglit  of  the  world's  last  civilization.  And  then 
I  know  the  Antilles  are  strategic.  They  are  the  chal- 
lenging ports  of  a  world-wide  commerce  and  the  meet- 
ing place  of  the  nations  of  the  earth.  And  then  will 
we  know,  if  we  do  not  now,  that  they  are  the  stepping 
stones  for  our  going  to  republics  beyond,  which  for  their 
peace  and  prosperity  wait  the  education  and  the  gospel 
which  are  the  corner  stones  of  our  greatness. 

THE  INDIANS 

For  an  instant,  turn  to  one  more  picture.  It  has 
nothing  to  do  with  national  greatness,  but  much  with 
the  national  honor ;  nothing  to  do  with  Christian 
strategy,  but  much  with  Christian  character.  A  quar- 
ter of  a  million  of  red  men  are  nothing  in  the  way  of 
our  march — were  little  when  they  were  numerous  and 


284  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

wo  wore  u  few.  The  push  of  civihziition  in  tlie  eml  is 
ahiiigiity.  So  the  Stockbridges  wore  pushed  out  of 
Massachusetts,  the  Iroquois  out  of  New  York,  the 
Clierokees  out  of  Tennessee,  tlie  Sioux  out  of  Minnesota, 
— remnants  of  many  tribes  imprisoned  in  the  Indian 
Territory,  or  hunted  through  tlie  canyons  of  the  moun- 
tains till  they  disappeared.  And  a  nation's  history  is  its 
judgment.  We  must  settle  the  account  with  eternal 
justice  as  we  may  be  able.  But  it  is  for  the  Christian 
Church  to  walk  in  the  steps  of  Jesus  Christ.  Those 
steps  will  lead  us  to  the  tents  and  tepees  of  our  savages. 
And  our  going  has  been  blessed.  Regard  it  in  the  light 
of  our  mission  to  the  Sioux,  wdio  contributed  last  year 
for  home  missions  $1940 — over  $1,50  per  member — 
far  more  than  the  average  of  our  whole  Church,  Re- 
gard it  in  the  light  of  Henry  Kendall  College,  in  the 
territory,  whence  have  gone  Indian  Christians  and 
Indian  patriots  whose  heroism  in  Cuba  evoked  the 
praises  of  our  Colonel  of  the  Rough  Riders.  Regard 
it  in  the  light  of  the  Indian  ministers  among  the  Nez 
Perces,  the  mission  of  some  of  whom  has  been  like  that 
of  an  Elliott  or  a  Brainerd.  Regard  it  in  the  light  of 
our  suffering  Pimas,  where  Christian  Indians,  a  thousand 
strong,  are  bearing  the  burdens  of  poverty  even  unto 
hunger  with  heroic  fortitude  and  Christian  patience. 

Of  the  future  in  this  connection  there  is  not  much  to 
prophesy.  Only  this — it  will  be  a  dark  day  for  the 
Christian  Church  when  she  can  regard  without  emotion 
the  fading  away  of  those  owners  of  our  soil  whose  his- 
tory strotohos  into  a  mythical  past ;  when  she  can  con- 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  285 

sitler  their  future  as  anything  less  than  a  plea  of  bound- 
less pathos,  to  do  the  best  she  can  to  seek  and  to  save. 
Is  it  too  late  to  give  them  a  home  on  earth  ?  Are  the 
nomadic  instincts  of  a  hundred  generations  too  strong 
to  be  overcome  by  any  allurements  of  citizenship  here  ? 
At  least,  by  the  grace  of  God,  we  may  kindle  on  their 
dull  faces  a  hope  of  heaven,  of  citizenship  in  a  country 
of  which  they  never  have  been  skeptical  and  toward 
which  their  dulled  minds  doggedly  point. 

OUR  DUTY 

Behold  thus  the  missionary  duty  of  the  twentieth 
century.  That  the  world  power  is  rapidly  shifting  to 
this  continent  is  now  commonly  conceded.  A  Briton 
like  Mr.  Stead  can  speak  of  the  United  States  of  the 
World  and  not  be  disowned  in  England.  A  dream  of 
the  federation  of  all  English-speaking  peoples  of  the 
world,  with  their  capitol  at  Washington,  is  by  no  means 
a  crazy  vagary.  The  late  Frank  Stockton  met  an 
Englishman  last  summer  who  frankly  regretted  the  folly 
of  George  III.  "  Why,"  he  said,  "  he  cost  us  America." 
Stockton  replied,  "  Have  you  thought  what  he  cost  us  ? 
He  cost  us  Britain."  It  may  come  yet,  that  in  bonds 
of  federation  Britain  will  belong  to  America.  But 
Avhether  that  or  not — the  Anglo-Saxon  power  is  shifting 
hither.  What  does  that  portend  for  the  world  ?  That 
depends,  at  last,  on  what  Christianity  can  do  for  us. 

The  beginning  of  the  last  century  was  marked  by  an 
awakening  of  righteousness.  Revivals  sprang  up  simul- 
taneously from  New  England  to  Tennessee.    It  was  like 


28G  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

another  Reformation.  Infidelity  was  sliaken  to  pieces. 
Irrelijrion  hid  in  a  corner.  It  was  meet  it  should  be  so. 
The  nation  had  a  mighty  march  ahead,  and  only  as 
girded  with  the  loftiest  moral  principles  could  she  enter 
in  to  possess  the  land.  Now  we  are  at  the  beginning 
of  another  century,  and  we  need  another  revival  to  fit 
us  for  the  longer  and  grander  march  that  is  ahead.  It 
must  be  a  revival  of  spiritual  religion,  else  the  lower 
levels  will  hold  us  and  be  our  destruction.  Mr.  Glad- 
stone, contemplating  our  dawning  greatness,  asked, 
"  How  is  the  majestic  figure  who  is  to  become  the 
largest  and  most  powerful  on  the  stage  of  the  world's 
history  to  make  use  of  his  power?"  And  he  added  : 
"  We  must  ascend  from  the  groimd  floor  of  material 
industry  to  the  higher  regions  in  which  nobler  purposes 
are  to  be  wrought  out."  We  are  in  danger  of  the 
"  gronnd  floor,"  in  danger  of  failing  of  that  "  ascending 
spiral  which  leads  from  matter  up  to  God." 

Consider  how  powerless  is  the  Church  on  the  verge 
of  her  great  mission.  In  the  year  before  this  one,  over 
2000  of  our  churches  reported  no  additions.  Of  the 
5000  which  received  accessions  almost  one-half  received 
five,  or  less.  Shall  I  contrast  this  array  of  powerless- 
ness  with  the  rewards  of  service  in  Alaska,  where  one 
missionary  baptized  52  Indians  ;  or  in  Porto  Rico,  where 
one  missionary  led  100  souls  to  the  Master?  Must  our 
mission  fields  in  their  ])overty  and  isolation  teach  ns 
the  secret  of  power?  To  your  tents,  O  Israel !  The 
century  calls  for  God's  men.  Has  there  been  some 
revival  of  missionary  spirit  ?     Thank  God  there  has, 


CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS  287 

but  how  meager  to  employ  our  equipment,  liow  poor  in 
the  })resencc  of  possibilities.  We  need  a  spirit  of  evan- 
gelism that,  like  a  flying  squadron,  shall  hasten  from 
port  to  port  with  its  message  of  life. 

Why  should  another  century  be  laid  under  tribute 
before  America,  by  her  own  regeneration,  is  prepared 
for  the  saving  of  the  world?  Some  one  has  said  that 
the  martial  spirit  in  a  man  or  a  nation  is  measured  by 
its  ability  to  watch  opportunity,  to  seize  opportunity, 
to  crowd  opportunity.  We  claim  to  have  the  martial 
spirit.  It  is  in  the  blood  of  men  whose  fathers  fought 
on  all  the  religious  battlefields  of  Europe.  Let  us  show 
it  then,  for  never  was  such  a  campaign  as  that  for  which 
the  drums  are  beating  now.  We  have  some  martial 
spirit.  We  have  watched  the  opportunity.  Like  Samp- 
son's fleet  before  Santiago,  watching  the  smoke  of  ships 
within  tlie  harbor,  waiting  for  a  chance,  we  have  watched 
the  smoke  of  the  immigration  fleets  and  longed  for  a 
chance  to  conquer  them  for  Christ. 

It  may  even  be  said,  we  have  seized  opportunity. 
As  the  Brooklyn,  the  Oregon,  and  the  Texas  opened 
on  the  flying  ships  of  Spain,  so  we  have  sprung  to  our 
chance  to  lower  across  a  continent  the  flags  of  ignorance, 
superstition,  and  sin.  But  we  have  not  crowded  oppor- 
tunity. See  our  fleet  close  in  on  the  beached  ships  of 
Spain,  nor  cease  its  converging  fire  until  tlie  last  flag  is 
down  !  A  nation's  everlasting  gratitude  to  the  admiral 
just  laid  to  his  honored  rest !  Ah  !  could  we  thus 
crowd  opportunity;  could  the  martial  spirit  of  the  heroes 
of  earthly  battles   thoroughly  possess  the    soldiers  of 


288  CENTENNIAL   OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

Christ,  how  swift  and  strong  would  tlie  cohimns  move 
across  prairies  and  mountains,  across  islands  and  conti- 
nents, till  not  one  flag  should  fly  that  was  not  loyal  to 
the  name  and  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ. 


/ 


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